About 8500 additional passengers passed through QAL’s airports in June 2023 compared to June 2022 – which held the previous record for QAL’s busiest June.

More than 3.8 million passengers travelled through QAL’s four airports since the start of this year.  The busiest routes are Gold Coast Airport’s Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland connections, and the Townsville to Brisbane service.

Townsville Airport had its best June to date with more than 153,000 passengers passing through the terminal, surpassing the previous record of 144,302 set in 2012. Gold Coast Airport recorded  482,000 passengers through the terminal, exceeding 2019 figures by about 7500.  Mount Isa Airport and Longreach Airport also exceeded 2019 figures.

QAL chief executive Amelia Evans said the strong figures were a direct result of hard work to re-establish partnerships with airlines and strengthened capacity on existing services.

“We have returned to 98 per cent of pre-Covid figures, which makes for a strong business case in our discussions with airlines to acquire new routes and boost capacity on existing ones,” she said.

“Already this year, we’ve established five additional services with four airlines across our airports.”

“Those services include connections to Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton and Toowoomba Wellcamp from Townsville and Kuala Lumpur and Bali from Gold Coast, with capacity on our New Zealand services having also increased.

“We know that cost-of-living pressures mean everyone is more conscious about how and where they spend their money – but we’re seeing that travel remains important and by adding new destinations to our airports, we hope it will help put downward pressure on airfares overall.”