International scheduled passenger traffic in April 2013 was up 3.1 per cent to 2.453 million passengers. Year-to-date, international traffic has increased 4.9 per cent to 30.06 million.
Some 53 international scheduled airlines operated services to and from Australia, which combined increased capacity to Australia by 6.4 per cent resulting in a lower average load factor of 75.1 per cent.
Qantas retained the largest share of the market in April with 17.2 per cent, however its share decreased 1.5 per cent compared to April 2012. Jetstar recorded 8.0 per cent and Jetstar Asia 0.6 per cent, which gave the Qantas Group market share of 25.8 per cent of total passenger carriage in April 2013. The group’s share in April 2012 was 27.0 per cent.
The share of passenger traffic accounted for by all Australian designated airlines has decreased from 32.5 per cent in April 2012 to 31.0 per cent in April 2013.
Of the foreign carriers, Emirates gained share to 9.4 per cent, while Singapore Airlines recorded 9.1 per cent, Air New Zealand 8.3 per cent and Jetstar 8.0 per cent.
Low-cost carriers AirAsia X, Indonesia AirAsia, Jetstar, Jetstar Asia, Tiger Airways and Scoot accounted for 14.2 per cent of total international passenger traffic to and from Australia, up 1.6 per cent. April 2013.
Singapore-originating services recorded the highest growth, with Singapore-Sydney experiencing a leap of 15.4 per cent and Singapore-Brisbane 6.3 per cent as a result of Qantas’s renewed Asia strategy and incremental increases by Singapore Airlines. Overall, the Singapore market was up 10.2 per cent. New Zealand remained the busiest international market with 5.6 million passengers so far this year, up 1.6 per cent.
Australia has bucked the generally negative trend in international airfreight by recording a 3.6 per cent increase over the same time last year. Imports decreased by 3.4 per cent while exports increased 16.0 per cent.
