The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) have announced that more people then ever are flying domestically. A record 55 million passengers were carried on 600 000 flights between Australian airports for the 12 months until June 2011.
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) have announced that more people then ever are flying domestically. A record 55 million passengers were carried on 600 000 flights between Australian airports for the 12 months until June 2011.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure the Honorable Anthony Albanese has advised that total passenger numbers increased by three million a rise of 5.8 per cent compared to previous years. The number of available seats are up 6 per cent to over 70 million. This number would have been more if not for the grounding of Tiger Airways for part of the year. The impact of the Chilean volcanic ash cloud was a major disruption to flights during February 2011 which further reduced passenger numbers.
The resilience of the industry and the confidence of Australians to continue flying shows the strength of the Australian economy compared to the rest of the world.
Flights between capital cities and major regional centres showed the fastest passenger growth:
- Cairns – Melbourne, up 30.2 per cent;
- Newman – Perth, up 20.6 per cent;
- Melbourne – Newcastle, up 17.6 per cent;
- Sunshine Coast – Sydney, up 16.7 per cent; and
- Brisbane – Mackay, up 16.4 per cent.
The five busiest routes were:
- Melbourne – Sydney, 7.9 million passengers;
- Brisbane – Sydney, 4.4 million passengers;
- Brisbane – Melbourne, 3.1 million passengers;
- Adelaide – Melbourne, 2.3 million passengers; and
- Gold Coast – Sydney, 2.3 million passengers.
Among the nation’s ten biggest domestic airports, Perth recorded the fastest growth in passenger numbers, up 9.1 per cent to more than 7.6 million.
For a copy of the report got to: www.bitre.gov.au
For further information visit http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/aa/releases/2011/September/AA167_2011.aspx .