Perth Targets China, India Traffic Following Record Year

Routes Asia 2025 co-host Perth Airport (PER) enjoyed a robust recovery in 2023, registering a record 15.3 million passengers, eclipsing the previous high of 14.9 million set in 2014.

Although international travel remains around 10% down on 2019 levels, key markets like India, the Philippines and Vietnam have surpassed pre-COVID levels. Additionally, the airport has welcomed a host of new overseas services over the past 12 months, including flights from Batik Air Malaysia, Philippine Airlines, VietJet and Vietnam Airlines.

“Perth may be geographically isolated in Western Australia, but we are certainly well connected,” says Stephanie Juszkiewicz, senior vice president for aviation business development. “We’ve seen new routes to Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta, as well as frequency increases to Hong Kong, Mauritius and Singapore. There's certainly lots of activity going on.”

The momentum has continued into 2024 with China Eastern Airlines operating a seasonal service from Shanghai over Chinese New Year; All Nippon Airways (ANA) operating a 3X-weekly route form Tokyo Narita; and South African Airways announcing plans to resume flights from Johannesburg in April.

AirAsia Berhad has also confirmed that Perth will become its first destination in Australia from March 11. The LCC will open a daily route from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) using Airbus A321neo aircraft, complementing the group’s existing services from KUL by AirAsia X and from Denpasar (Bali) and Jakarta by Indonesia AirAsia.

Other air service expansions from March 31 will see Singapore Airlines returning to pre-COVID capacity and Thai Airways reinstating daily Boeing 787-8 operations from Bangkok. Emirates has also confirmed it will offer a second daily flight from Dubai starting on Dec. 1.

“Our traffic is well balanced, and the outbound market remains very strong, particularly for premium leisure,” Juszkiewicz says, adding that Perth remains the only Australian city that has nonstop connectivity into the UK and Europe.

At present, Qantas operates daily service to London Heathrow and will resume Rome Fiumicino service in June. Additionally, the Oneworld alliance member plans to introduce a new service to Paris Charles de Gaulle on July 12 in time for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in the French capital. The launch will add an additional 75,000 seats to and from Europe every year.

As well as seeking to develop further opportunities in the European market, China and India are key targets, Juszkiewicz says. Although Perth currently lacks nonstop flights to both nations, she explains that each offer significant potential. A route to Seoul is also high on Perth’s wish list.

Sabre data shows that the Perth-China market totalled about 200,000 two-way O&D passengers in 2019 when China Southern Airlines served PER nonstop from Guangzhou, while the Perth-India market registered around 147,000 two-way passengers during the same year.

Working in partnership with Tourism Western Australia, Perth aims to showcase the strength of the city and its surrounds to delegates attending Routes Asia 2025 so they leave “feeling confident and optimistic about the opportunities this market presents,” Juszkiewicz says. She adds that increased air connectivity is essential to the region’s strategy to continue its economic growth.

Tourism supported nearly 30,000 tourism businesses and generated more than 89,000 tourism jobs for Western Australia in 2021-22. This helped to inject about A$16.8 billion ($10.9 billion) injected into the state through visitor spending.

In order to ensure that Perth is able to meet future demand for air service, the airport is undergoing projects include expanding the international terminal, new domestic terminal facilities, a new runway and multistory parking lots, and have been part of a master plan to consolidate operations into the Airport Central precinct.

Routes Asia 2025 takes place in Perth from March 25-27.