Queenstown Airport passenger numbers take off

Queenstown Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell, NZ Herald

Queenstown Airport set a passenger record for August - up 13.1 per cent to 155,668 visitors - underpinned by the Winter Games and additional airline capacity.

Auckland International Airport, which has a 24.9 per cent shareholding in Queenstown, released its passenger figures for August yesterday, showing international passenger numbers were up 6 per cent at 649,845.

Total international passengers for the year to August, through Auckland, rose 6.3% to 8.69 million, while domestic travel was up 4.2 per cent to 7.25 million.

For Queenstown, its international passenger numbers were up 10.9 per cent to 61,277 compared with August last year, while its domestic domestic passengers were up 14.5 per cent, to 94,391 passengers.

''The strong performance was in part due to good skiing conditions, the Winter Games and added capacity, including a 20.3 per cent increase in Air New Zealand's Auckland-Queenstown winter capacity,'' Auckland airport said in the report.

Just last month, Queenstown Airport Corporation booked a record after-tax profit of $8.3 million, and paid its largest dividend to Queenstown Lakes District Council (71.5 per cent) and Auckland airport, on the basis of a 13 per cent boost to revenue, to $24.8 million for the year.

Total Queenstown aircraft movements were up 8.9 per cent, from 1214 in August last year to 1322; domestic rising 9.5 per cent to 832 and international up 7.9 per cent to 490.

For Auckland, arrival numbers per last country of residence are New Zealand and Australia, Chinese arrivals were up 25% to 24,017 passengers and India, up 14.8 per cent to 3025.