Middle East routes driving force in Auckland Airport passenger drop

The conflict in the Middle East appears to have had a chilling effect on international travel into Auckland.

Auckland Airport said passenger movements on long-haul international routes into Auckland dropped by 3 percent in June compared with the year earlier with seat capacity down 5 percent.

Middle Eastern passenger routes were most affected as seat capacity dropped 53 percent, driving down passenger numbers by 62 percent in June over the year earlier.

The airport said the top five nationalities for non-transit international passengers indicates New Zealand nationals dropped by 10 percent in June over the year earlier, while Australian nationals increased by 2 percent, Chinese nationals increased by 4 percent, Indian nationals were up by 3 percent, and United States nationals fell by 6 percent.

There was a total of 722,000 international passenger movements last month, which was 4 percent down on the year earlier.

Passenger volume on short-haul international routes also dropped by 4 percent, with domestic passenger traffic also down 5 percent on the year earlier, with seat capacity down 6 percent.

The downturn in domestic air travel saw passengers on main routes drop 3 percent with regional passenger numbers down 8 percent.

Still, Queenstown Airport international passenger numbers rose 19 percent on the year prior with domestic passengers numbers down just 1 percent.