May 2025 Monthly traffic update

May 2025 Monthly traffic update

Key points:

• In May 2025, there was a total of 765k international passenger movements in the month, a 4% increase compared to the same month in 2024. Excluding transits, international passenger movements for the month of May 2025 increased by 6%. International seat capacity was flat on the same month last year resulting in average load factors of 80%, a 3.3 percentage point improvement on the year prior;

• Reviewing the five largest nationalities for non-transit international passengers showed that New Zealanders made up 52% of international passenger movements in the month, an increase of 6% on prior year and 3% ahead of May 2019. Australian nationals increased by 5% on the prior year and account for 10% of all international passengers. Chinese nationals increased by 7%, USA nationals increased by 13% with Indian nationals decreasing by 2%, but 31% ahead of May 2019;

• Load factors across the short-haul international network reached 82%, 2.1 percentage points higher than the year prior. Long-haul international load factors improved by 4.8 percentage points to 77%. Departing long-haul international load factors were elevated at 84%. With the transition into the winter season, the seasonal shift drove higher outbound demand as travellers seek warmer destinations abroad;

• Domestic passenger movements increased 1% in the month of May 2025 when compared to the same month in the prior year, with seat capacity increasing 2%, resulting in domestic load factors declining by 0.9 percentage points to 81%. Domestic trunk passengers and seat capacity increased by 3% and 4% year on year respectively resulting in load factors of 82%; and

• Queenstown Airport international passenger numbers in May 2025 increased 15% on the year prior and domestic passengers decreased 1% on the same month last year.

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