The final quarter of the calendar year was also the busiest ever for the T1 terminal, processing 4.62 million passengers between October and December 2025, a 5.9 per cent increase on the same quarter in 2024.
The record performance in Q4 was enabled in part by an increase in services from Middle East, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and North America. This was a combination of increased frequency on established routes and the start of new international routes during 2025.
There was a notable rise in passengers from Asia in Q4, including a 12.2 per cent rise in Chinese passport holders, a 15.3 per cent rising in passengers travelling on South Korean passports and an 8.3 per cent rise in Japanese travellers. Travellers from the UK also rose by 7.4 per cent.
It was variations on a similar story around the country, with Perth Airport also notching up its highest number of international passengers in a calendar year in 2025, at 5.4 million – a 12.5 per cent increase – while Brisbane recording it’s biggest ever day in its international terminal on December 20, processing 26,111 passengers. Queensland’s capital city airport also saw a 10.7 per cent rise in international passengers in December 2025 compared to December 2024.
Melbourne Airport saw a record number of international flights in December and recorded a 4.9 per cent rise in international passengers for the first half of the financial year, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile Adelaide Airport saw a huge 26 per cent rise in international passengers during the December quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Airport performances are backed up by the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) covering November 2025, which show a significant uptick in short term international arrivals to Australia – up 19.5 per cent on a year earlier.
Australia’s official international arrival figures from Tourism Research Australia covering the 2025 calendar year are due out in late March.
When they’re released, they’ll shed light on how much the Q4 and December airport records have bolstered Australia’s international visitor economy, which has still not recovered from the pandemic.
International arrivals have been inching up a per cent or two each quarter and currently sit at 92 per cent of pre-COVID numbers, for the year to September 2025.
