The mining boom is driving strong growth in passenger travel to and from Perth even as more popular east coast routes show sluggish or negative growth.
Overall passenger numbers through the Western Australia capital were up 9.5 per cent to 11.45 million for the year ending September 30, according to figures released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
In contrast, traffic on the Melbourne-Sydney route, by far the country’s most popular, was down 4.7 per cent in September, while traffic for the country as a whole fell 2.1 per cent for the month to 4.6 million.
The September figures show traffic on the Perth-Newman route up 26.6 per cent and Perth-Brisbane up 18 percent while routes between Perth and Sydney, Melbourne, Kalgoorlie and Karratha all rose by around 10 per cent.
Qantas subsidiary Network Aviation is set to receive 10 100-seat Fokker 100s in the next six months and will use those to further bolster routes connecting Perth with regional resource centres.
