NEW aviation figures from BITRE show that 4.81 million people used Australia’s domestic flight network throughout January, falling 10% short of the pre-pandemic level, which was 5.35 million in January 2020.
There was a significant rise in the number of aircraft trips made during the month however, at 49,009 trips versus 36,866 for the same period last year, and only a little under the 50,230 recorded for the equivalent pre-COVID period.
For the year ending January 2023, 5.12 million passengers were carried on regular public transport (RPT) flights, a 113% boost on the year ending January 2022, but 15% below the year ending January 2020.
On a positive note, the report showed that capacity has expanded significantly, with available seat kilometres rising from 4.65 billion in January 2022, to 7.03 billion in January 2023.
Australia’s busiest domestic airport for the first month of 2023 was Sydney, which clocked up 1.89 million passenger movements, followed
by Melbourne (1.88 million) and Brisbane (1.24 million).
Regional airports benefited from a busy month, with 1.85 million domestic passenger movements compared to 1.30 million for the same period last year. However, the numbers still trail behind the pre-COVID level, which hit 2.05 million in January 2020.
See the stats HERE.
