Gold Coast Airport has delivered its busiest March ever, with passenger movements up 5.1 per cent on the year prior.

The increase represents an additional 26,216 passengers on March 2017 and is the airport’s sixth consecutive month of growth.

A summary of March results is provided in the table below:

Airport CEO Chris Mills said the March results were reflective of the region’s busy events calendar, which coincided with the Easter holiday period.

“We saw the most significant growth for Gold Coast Airport from the New Zealand market, with 9.8 per cent more passengers than March last year,” he said.

“Throughout the month, we saw traffic for the Byron Bay Bluesfest, Easter holidays, Bleach* Festival, and of course the start of arrivals for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.”

Gold Coast Airport opened a specially designed Games lounge in March, to improve the experience for athletes, officials and sponsors and reduce pressure on the terminal.

“Our main arrival period for the Commonwealth Games commenced on March 20, as athletes flew in to acclimatise a few weeks ahead of the event,” Mr Mills said.

“Overall, teams from across 50 Commonwealth nations and territories used the lounge, including teams from South Africa, Canada, Jamaica, Pakistan, Scotland and India.”

Whilst a number of projects were undertaken to assist with the airport’s operational readiness for the Games, the airport’s post-Games plans are just as significant.

“Now that we’ve delivered our $86 million airside upgrade at Gold Coast Airport, our focus will turn to delivery of the next stage of Project LIFT – the terminal expansion,” Mr Mills said.

“Terminal building works are expected to start in late 2018, and will be completed in stages in the following years.”

One of Australia’s fastest growing airports, Gold Coast Airport welcomed more than 6.5 million passengers in 2017. Passenger movements are expected to reach 16.6 million annually by 2037.

QAL owns and operates Gold Coast, Townsville, Mount Isa and Longreach airports.