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Launceston Airport has marked what it says is the busiest month in its history, breaking its previous passenger record from January 2019.
The airport in northern Tasmania saw 159,032 passengers in January 2025, while 2 January was its busiest-ever day with 6,114 passengers, the first time it had handled more than 6,000 passengers in a single day. It comes after 2024 was Launceston’s best calendar year on record.
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According to airport chief executive Shane O’Hare, Launceston is embarking on infrastructure programs to ensure it can handle future growth.
“We are investing more than $100 million over the next five years to upgrade infrastructure in the terminals and on the airfield to accommodate our growing passenger numbers at the same time as enabling our airlines partners to expand.
“These results highlight the demand for tourism in the state and also the desire for more direct connections to the mainland, with strong two-way demand and average load factors on seasonal direct services frequently exceeding 90 per cent.
“In the last five years we’ve transitioned out of a pandemic and into one of the biggest growth periods in the airport’s history, which is an incredible achievement and one which positions us as one of the best performing airports in the country.
“It’s our job now to harness these numbers and continue to grow our network to provide our passengers and exporters more choice.”
January’s record follows 2024 being Launceston’s biggest-ever calendar year for passenger movements, with 1,428,223 travellers from January through to December, up 4 per cent on 2023. The airport had broken pre-COVID-19 passenger levels in the 2023–24 financial year.
“We have an amazing platform of record-breaking passenger numbers to grow from, and through partnering with our airlines, the Tasmanian government and Tourism Tasmania, we look forward to breaking new records in 2025,” O’Hare said last month.
“Our 2024 figures show that despite cost-of-living pressures people are still finding room in their budgets for travel.
“As an island state, aviation provides many in our community an important connection to friends and family around Australia along with playing a vital role for Tasmanian producers to move high-value product quickly from pallet to plate.”
O’Hare last month also indicated that Launceston was looking to its airline partners to restore Bonza’s former route to the Sunshine Coast.
