The number of Australian domestic passengers in July 2012 increased by 4.7 per cent compared to July 2011, rising to 5.12 million passengers.
According to statistics released by BITRE today, scheduled flights accounted for 4.93 million passengers, up 3.7 per cent, while revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased by 4.7 per cent reflecting additional capacity returning to the market following the resumption of flights by Tiger Airways. Overall load factor for scheduled flights decreased slightly from 81.4 per cent in July 2011 to 77.9 per cent in July this year. Year-to-date figures, however, show more modest growth of only 0.7 per cent compared with the year ending July 2011.
Melbourne-Sydney remained the busiest route, where passenger numbers increased 6.4 per cent to 690,121 passengers followed by Brisbane-Sydney (down 3.8 per cent) and Brisbane-Melbourne (up 3.5 per cent).
Not surprisingly, mining-led scheduled routes showed the highest growth rates: Newman-Perth (up 62.1 per cent), Brisbane-Gladstone (up 40.1 per cent) and Perth-Port Hedland (up 38.7 per cent). Fly-in fly-out charter operations carried nearly 190,000 passengers in July (up 39.5 per cent), with three-quarters of all charter passengers originating in or arriving in Perth.
Decreases were recorded on some routes: Melbourne-Sunshine Coast (down 16.3 per cent), Adelaide-Canberra (down 13.4 per cent) and Brisbane-Hamilton Island (down 12.5 per cent).
Domestic terminal throughput for Sydney for July was 2.14 million, while Melbourne recorded 1.92 million and Brisbane 1.48 million.
Airfreight movements decreased 5.9 per cent to 38,600 tonnes in July,
