A record 2.75-million international passengers passed through Cape Town International Airport last year, surpassing the previous high of 2.4-million set in 2018.
More than 300,000 international travellers a month used the airport in December, January and March, which helped push the annual number of passengers over the 10-million mark for the first time since the Covid pandemic upended global travel.
Travel restrictions took Cape Town’s numbers down to a precipitous 2.4-million in the 2020/21 financial year, the Airports Company of South Africa data shows.
More than 7.1-million passengers used the domestic terminal in the year ending March 2023.
Passenger numbers at OR Tambo International in Johannesburg, the country’s busiest airport, have also increased since Covid, but the 7-million international passengers recorded in 2023 were still 2-million short of the 9.2-million recorded in 2018.