SYDNEY Airport has recovered from a slower November to post a record high number of passengers passing through in December, helping it achieve its busiest ever year.
The airport’s figures, released on Monday, show 37.9 million passengers got on and off planes in 2013, including 3.4 million in December.
The annual figure was up 2.6 per cent from the 36.92 million in 2012.
Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather said December 21 was the international terminal’s busiest day ever with 476,300 passengers passing through.
Growth was greater in international passenger numbers than in domestic, with a 5.2 per cent lift in December to 1.23 million and a 4.1 per cent rise for the year to 12.75 million.
The greatest numbers of visitors in December came from the UK, China and Singapore.
For overseas travel out of Australia, the most popular business and leisure destinations were Malaysia, China, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Domestic passengers grew 2.6 per cent to 2.18 million in December, and by 1.9 per cent to 25 million for the year.
