Figures supplied yesterday by AIA showed total international movements through Queenstown Airport rose 16.7% in February to 15,716 and domestic passenger numbers rose 5.6% to 84,643. In the financial year to date, international passenger movements rose 18.1% to 178,850 and domestic passenger numbers rose 17.8%.
On a rolling 12-month total, international passenger movements were up 17.2% to 222,693 and domestic movements were up 18.6% to 852,272.
International aircraft movements were up 13.5% in the month to 118, domestic movements were down less than 1% at 766. But in the year to date, international movements were up 18% to 1404 and domestic movements were up 10.2% to 6474.
AIA took a 24.99% stake in Queenstown Airport in 2010 against opposition from locals.
AIA did not comment directly on Queenstown's figures but said
international passenger volumes at Auckland Airport were up 3.8% compared with February 2012. The year-on-year increase was driven by strong Chinese New Year traffic on Asian routes as well as continued year-on-year growth on Australian routes.
''Chinese visitor arrivals performed exceptionally over the Chinese New Year period with arrivals up 94.2% on February 2010,'' the company said in a statement.
''We have seen significant growth in Chinese arrivals during the Chinese New Year period with 30% year-on-year growth in the combined two month January and February period. This indicates that New Zealand is fast becoming a very popular Chinese New Year holiday destination.''
Japanese visitor arrivals continued to show signs of recovery following the natural disasters in Christchurch and Japan two years ago, the company said.
The 7785 visitor arrivals from Japan showed a 29.7% increase on the 6002 visitors in February last year. The 2013 figure was also higher than in February 2010 before the disasters.
