Queenstown Airport set a passenger record for August - up 13.1% to 155,668 visitors - underpinned by the Winter Games and additional airline capacity.
Auckland International Airport, which has a 24.9% shareholding in Queenstown, released its passenger figures for August yesterday, showing international passenger numbers were up 6% at 649,845.
Total international passengers for the year to August, through Auckland, rose 6.3% to 8.69million, while domestic travel was up 4.2% to 7.25million.
For Queenstown, its international passenger numbers were up 10.9% to 61,277 compared with August last year, while its domestic domestic passengers were up 14.5%, 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% 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 $8.3million, and paid its largest dividend to Queenstown Lakes District Council (71.5%) and Auckland airport, on the basis of a 13% boost to revenue, to $24.8million for the year.
Total Queenstown aircraft movements were up 8.9%, from 1214 in August last year to 1322; domestic rising 9.5% to 832 and international up 7.9% 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% to 3025.
