Sydney Airport (SYD) says seven Chinese airlines will operate 48 weekly services to the airport from mainland China in July, marking a rapid increase over the first half of the year as the Chinese market rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of Chinese passengers using SYD in May was 54% recovered versus May 2019, up from just 22% recovered at the beginning of 2023.

China Southern operates the most flights to SYD from China, flying 14X-weekly from Guangzhou and 3X-weekly from Shenzhen. China Eastern flies 11X-weekly from Shanghai and 3X-weekly from Nanjing. 

Other highlights of services to SYD from China include 4X-weekly Air China flights from Beijing, 7X-weekly Xiamen Airlines flights from Xiamen and 2X-weekly Beijing Capital Airlines flights from Qingdao.

Overall, SYD handled just over 3 million passengers in May, 85.7% recovered from May 2019. International traffic (1.1 million passengers) was 83.1% recovered, while domestic traffic (1.9 million) was 87.3% recovered. 

“The airport has just posted its strongest international traffic numbers since borders closed in March 2020,” SYD CEO Geoff Culbert says in a statement. “In the first five months of this year, we’ve had 5.5 million international passengers through Sydney Airport, which is almost three times the number we saw in the same period in 2022.”

He adds: “The recovery of the China market continues to impress, with passenger numbers on the mainland [routes] increasing seven-fold since the start of the year ... This is one of the strongest China recoveries of any international airport globally, which provides a critical boost to Australia’s tourism industry and the economy more broadly.”