A record 55 million passengers travelled on Australian domestic flights last year as growth on regional routes spiked in response to the mining boom.
Sydney remained Australia’s busiest domestic airport with 24.2 million passenger movements, followed by Melbourne with 21.4 million and Brisbane with 16.4 million, according to figures released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
Melbourne-Sydney remained the country’s busiest route with 7.73 million passengers, followed by Brisbane-Sydney with 4.35 million and Brisbane-Melbourne with 3.15 million. Routes to and from Perth saw the greatest growth compared to the previous year, driven by demand for fly-in fly-out services for the mining industry.
Available airline seats rose by 0.7 per cent to 71 million, according to the figures.
Australia’s aviation industry supports 50,000 jobs and injects more than $5 billion into the economy, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said.
