The number of domestic passengers and capacity continued to rise sharply in July according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics’ (BITRE) latest Domestic Airline Activity report.
The report shows that during July the number of domestic passengers increased by 8.3 per cent compared to the same time last year, while revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose by the same amount. Capacity increased by 8.8 per cent, resulting in a slight fall in load factor from 80.7 per cent to 80.3 per cent. The report also noted that seat utilisation decreased on 28 of the 52 routes for which data was provided, with the Melbourne-Sunshine Coast route recording the biggest fall in load factor, from 90.4 to 76.2 per cent.
The report also showed that the Gold Coast-Newcastle route had the greatest percentage increase in traffic on July 2009, with passenger numbers up 39.4 per cent. This was followed by Cairns-Melbourne (up 22.0 per cent), Adelaide-Brisbane (up 21.8 per cent), Sunshine Coast-Sydney (up 21.4 per cent) and Gold Coast-Melbourne (up 21.2 per cent).
The biggest decrease was felt on the Adelaide-Canberra route, which was down 20.7 per cent. Adelaide-Perth (down 8.7 per cent), Launceston-Sydney (down 6.4 per cent), Ballina-Sydney (down 6.3 per cent) and Darwin-Perth (down 6.0 per cent) also recorded significant falls.
