Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather expects the number of Chinese visitors to Australia to soar in the coming years, particularly from regional cities.
Sydney Airport made a net profit of $59.1 million in 2014, as passenger numbers lifted 1.7 per cent to 38.5 million.
Chairman Max Moore Wilton also announced he will retire at the company's annual meeting in May, after nine years in the job.
Ms Mather says China is the airport's largest international growth market, with visitor numbers up 16 per cent in 2014.
She believes a new bilateral air services agreement between Australia and China, forged in January, will see passengers rise further.
That agreement has lifted capacity to 53,000 seats per week, up from the previous agreement of 22,500.
Capacity on flights between the countries will to hit 67,500 seats per week by the end of 2016.
"That's a three-fold increase, which is fantastic," Ms Mather said.
Under the new agreement, half the capacity is for major gateways such Shanghai and Beijing, while the other half is for what Ms Mather described as "regional cities".
Cities like Chengdu, which has a large middle class, and Xian, home of the terracotta warriors, along with Qingdao, Shenyang and Fuzhou are targets for growth.
"They represent the next stage of development in the Chinese market," Ms Mather said.
"They've got large populations - all well in excess of Sydney - and are underserved, or unserved by local services."
Though it will take time for the airlines to build up to the larger China-Australia travel capacity, as planes are built and routes are planned, she said.
And Sydney Airport could handle the extra traffic, even with its night-flying curfew and 80 flights per hour cap on movements.
"Our infrastructure can handle significantly more than the policy restrictions allow," Ms Mather said.
The policy allows for 500,000 flight movements per year, while the airport is currently doing 327,000, she said.
"We've got plenty of capacity."
Sydney Airport shares dropped 18 cents, or 3.5 per cent, to $5.00.
PROFIT LIFT-OFF FOR SYDNEY AIRPORT
* Net profit of $59.1m, up from $26.9m loss in 2013/14
* Revenue of $1.16b, up from $1.12b
* Final distribution of 12 cents per share
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