Melbourne Airport closed its 2026 financial year with a record 12.26 million international passengers — the first time above twelve million since 1970 — while the long-promised airport rail link now carries real dates: first stage by 2030, full service 2033.
The airport handled 12,256,328 international passengers across 57,002 flights in the year to June 2026, with total traffic of 36,993,557 — the busiest twelve months since opening in 1970. December 2025 was the busiest month on record at 3,421,195 passengers. China led the source markets with 636,245 arrivals (+8%), followed by New Zealand (517,943), India (323,308), the UK (+9.4%) and the US (+7.9%).
December 2025 alone brought three new carriers — Delta from Los Angeles, Shenzhen Airlines and Hong Kong Airlines — adding roughly 270,000 seats a year. The airport is answering with a A$4.5 billion expansion of the international terminal, a third runway and a rebuilt road network; new, larger pick-up zones in the T123 Transport Hub open this October.
Melbourne is the largest airport in Australia without a rail connection — the SkyBus to Southern Cross (A$25.90 one way, about 20–30 minutes) has carried the load for decades. The Airport Rail project paused in 2023 over a station-design dispute, was settled in July 2024 with an elevated airport station, and resumed in 2025 with A$13 billion in combined federal-state funding.
Current milestones: works begin in 2026 on stage one — rebuilding tracks around Sunshine station, targeted to complete by 2030 — with full operational opening, running through the Metro Tunnel, now scheduled for 2033. The projected benefit-cost ratio is 2.10: every dollar in returns A$2.10.
Our read: fly into Tullamarine freely — the 24-hour, curfew-free operation and the December capacity adds make it the easiest Australian gateway after Sydney. But plan ground transport as if the rail link did not exist: it will not carry a passenger before 2030 at the earliest. SkyBus to Southern Cross remains the default; buy the return online and save.
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