Key Points
- Sydney Airport share price slightly down 0.12% to $8.64
- Slow recovery in travel market, affected by COVID-19
- Year to date numbers have not improved
The Sydney Airport (ASX: SYD) share price is edging lower today, dragged down by the broader market.
Earlier this morning, the company released its monthly traffic update for December along with a brief outlook for 2022.
At the time of writing, the airport operator's shares are down 0.12% to $8.64. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (XJO) is 0.07% lower to 7,327.3 points.
How is Sydney Airport travelling?
The Sydney Airport share price is struggling today following the release of its passenger traffic performance for last month.
In its update, the company advised that total passenger traffic numbers stood at 1.2 million, down 69.7% on December 2019 levels.
Furthermore, domestic passenger traffic figures were 949,000 last month, down 56.9% from exactly two years ago.
In terms of international passengers, 248,000 people passed through Sydney Airport for the final month of 2021. This reflected a loss of 84.5% when compared to the December 2019 traffic report.
The latest results failed to meet management's expectations of a quick recovery across the sector. A surge in Omicron cases impacted traveller demand which led to cancellations and lower load factors.
Fast-forward to 2022, the first 15 days of January indicate a drop off in both international and domestic passenger traffic. Provisional data suggests a loss of 85% and 58%, respectively when compared against the December 2019 report.
Sydney Airport is blaming the stunted growth on tightly-controlled inbound international travel, entry requirements and restrictions into overseas markets, and the recently announced domestic flight cancellations.
Sydney Airport share price summary
Since accelerating on the back of a takeover offer in July 2021, the Sydney Airport share price has gradually ascended.
Over the last 12 months, its shares are up by more than 40% for investors, but are flat year to date. Nonetheless, this year's share price marks the highest it has been since the pandemic began in February 2020.
Sydney Airport commands a market capitalisation of roughly $23.32 billion, ranking it as the 18th largest company on the ASX.
