Record passenger numbers fuel Perth Airport's profit growth

Record passenger numbers and several major property leasing deals have driven Perth Airport's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up by 18.5 per cent in the first half 2005 - 2006.

Perth Airport's EBITDA had increased from $38.2 million in the first half 2004 - 2005 to $45.2 million in the first half 2005 - 2006.

Perth Airport CEO Graham Muir said: "the number of passengers travelling through the airport rose by 7per cent to 3.60 million in the first half of 2005 - 2006. At the same time the airport land continued to attract considerable interest from a wide range of businesses, reflecting the booming Western Australian economy and the significant site advantages of the airport land.

"Overall, calendar 2005 was the busiest year on record for Perth Airport with passenger numbers reaching 6.90 million, up 7.7 per cent on 2004," Mr Muir said.

Perth Airport handled 2.05 million international passengers in 2005, up 10.4 per cent on 2004.

Domestic passenger numbers also climbed in 2005, with a total of 4.84 million passengers recorded for the year, an increase of 6.5 per cent on passenger throughput compared with 2004 figures.

The month of December 2005 was the airport's busiest on record with 0.63 million passengers, beating the previous record month - October 2005 - by over 11,000 passengers.