Sydney, Jan 23 (IANS): Sydney Airport saw 3.58 million passengers passing through the terminals in December 2023, up 15.8 per cent from the passenger traffic in same month of 2022, said an airport report.

The figure represents the strongest monthly passenger traffic since 2019 and a 90.6 per cent recovery of the passenger traffic compared to December 2019, the airport said in a report released on Monday.

The airport's international terminal scored 1.5 million passengers in December 2023, an increase of 29.4 per cent from December 2022 and representing a 93.3-per cent recovery compared to December 2019, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, domestic and regional passenger traffic was up 7.6 per cent in December 2023 from a year ago to reach 2.08 million.

Top 10 nationalities travelling through Sydney Airport in December 2023 included Australia, China, New Zealand, the US, Britain, India and South Korea.

For the whole year of 2023, Sydney Airport recorded more than 38.65 million passenger traffic, jumping 32.7 per cent from that in 2022 but still 13 per cent less than the annual record of 44.4 million set in 2019.

The airport also saw extra international capacity translate into strong passenger volumes in the India and South Korea markets in 2023, Sydney Airport CEO Scott Charlton said.

"We look forward to growing extra seat capacity and securing new services in 2024 and further cementing our position as Australia's gateway," he noted.