The number of international passengers through Auckland Airport in December 2015 was the highest yet for a single month, the listed airport company said in release to the market.
The 849,631 passengers, excluding transit passengers, was 32,000 more than the previous record set in January 2015 and 8.8% higher than in December 2014.
The December result was driven by capacity increases on Asian and North American routes, which increased visitor arrivals over summer, as well as by the number of people travelling to visit friends and relatives over the Christmas-New Year holiday period, the company said.
The airport's international passengers, excluding transit passengers, exceeded 8.4million for the 12 months ending December.
The increase in visitor numbers was primarily due to additional capacity on services from China, Australia, the United States and Japan, in part due to the launch of three new airlines and four year-round routes in the year.
The week ending December 20 was the busiest yet for the airport, with 200,135 international passengers, and the number of arriving international passengers in a week exceeded 100,000 for the first time.
"This record performance has continued across the busy peak period, with five consecutive weeks exceeding 200,000 international passengers and a new weekly record of 211,833 international passengers set in the week ending January 10.''
Domestic passengers through Auckland Airport increased by 69,000, or 10.8%, in December, compared with December 2014.
That made it the airport's busiest domestic month yet.
In December, Jetstar's Auckland-Nelson and Auckland-Napier services started, adding more than 17,000 seats to the regional network.
Overall domestic load factors improved to 83.9% in December and the Auckland-Queenstown route exceeded 90%, despite a combined airline capacity increase of 22% on that route, the airport company said.
In December, 40,855 international passenger movements were recorded at Queenstown Airport, up 26.8% on the previous corresponding period.
On a 12-month rolling average, 441,461 international passenger movements were recorded, up nearly 26% on the pcp.
