Perth airport had its busiest-ever month in January
 

In terms of passengers, that is.

https://www.wa.gov.au/government/med...overy-20240403

Western Australia's inbound aviation numbers have taken off in 2024, with Perth Airport clocking its busiest month on record in January with 1.39 million passengers.

For the first time since the State's borders reopened, the number of international flights surged beyond previous levels at the start of the year, with close to 1,000 international and nearly 1,780 interstate inbound flights across January.

These figures represent a 107 per cent recovery compared to 2019, with the upward trend continuing in February, when flight numbers reached 108 per cent compared to the same period in 2019. Additionally, Perth Airport reports international passenger numbers have surpassed pre-COVID levels.

Since the pandemic, the Western Australian Government, in partnership with Perth Airport, has secured non-stop flights from 19 global destinations including Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo.

Western Australia also remains the only Australian state or territory with non-stop aviation connections with the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Emirates has also recently announced a second daily flight between Dubai and Perth launching in December 2024 which will bring over 129,000 new inbound seats to Western Australia every year.

The State is expected to meet the national forecasted recovery for international visitors by 2025.

The WA Government's $75 million Aviation Recovery Fund (ARF) was delivered as part of the State's Reconnect WA strategy and is designed to attract airlines back to Western Australia, and help develop new routes and increase capacity on existing routes, both domestically and internationally.

It's a good thing the parallel runway is almost finished.

With its quietest ever month rapidly approaching.
#$hit$how

Will still be done before Melbournes!

When’s the double daily PER LHR Dreamliner service?

Not that anyone would ever doubt something coming off the desk of the Western Australian Deputy Premier; Treasurer; Minister for Transport; Minister for Tourism, the Honourable Rita Saffioti (giving the late Russ Hinze a run for his money in the Minister for Everything stakes) but the BITRE international numbers seem to contradict that. The BITRE international stats are as follows:

January 2020
PassengersFlightsGgg
January 2024
PassengersFlights

The WA border didn't re-open until March 2022. Does that make a difference? I can't find the monthly figures for the period Apr 22 to Jan 24.

Quite possibly, but my reading of
is that the "previous levels at the start of the year" would mean prior to the closures.

I might be misreading that because of the later reference to surpassing "pre-COVID levels".

They should be in the Table 4 stats from the monthlies at https://www.bitre.gov.au/publication...y_publications

The originally quoted article referred to 2019? In Jan 2020 passenger numbers were already declining IIRC. The Jan improvements are numbers of international flights and the Feb pax numbers are as reported by Perth airport rather than BITRE. There a lies, damn lies and statistics