Domestic air recovering

AUSTRALIA’s domestic aviation sector continued to improve its performance in Apr, with passenger numbers up 31.9% on the previous corresponding period - but still down about 10% on pre-pandemic levels.

The latest figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics indicated a total of 4.92 million passengers on commercial aviation flights in Australia, with the industry-wide load factor improving to 78.4%.

The highest load factor of 93.6% was recorded on the Melbourne-Perth route, while the lowest was Brisbane-Hamilton Island with flights just 46.3% full.

Australia’s busiest route during Apr was Melbourne-Sydney, carrying 603,300 pax, followed by Brisbane-Sydney at 321,900, then Brisbane-Melbourne with 272,200 movements.

Sydney was Australia’s busiest domestic airport, handling 1.944 million passengers, just a fraction ahead of Melbourne at 1.936m.