Domestic aviation activity

Summary

Domestic RPT passenger traffic (monthly)
Domestic RPT passenger traffic (annual)

There were 4.67 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in February 2025, compared with 4.93 million in February 2024 (down 5.2 per cent). This is also a decrease of 0.6 per cent on pre-COVID February 2019 passenger numbers (4.70 million).

4.35 million passengers were carried on Regular Public Transport (RPT) flights in February 2025 (excluding charter operations), a decrease of 4.8 per cent compared to February 2024.

For the month of February 2025, there were 45.2 thousand RPT aircraft trips, a decrease of 7.3 per cent on February 2024.

RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 5.07 billion for the month, compared with 5.29 billion in February 2024 (down 4.1 per cent).

Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), decreased to 6.30 billion in February 2025 compared to 6.56 billion in February 2024 (down 4.0 per cent).

The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) decreased from 80.6 per cent in February 2024 to 
80.5 per cent in February 2025.

Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 24.6 thousand tonnes in February 2025, a decrease of 3.9 per cent compared with February 2024. 

In February 2025, there were 1.78 million domestic passenger movements through regional airports, a decrease of 3.9 per cent from February 2024.

Fixed-wing charter operators carried 322.5 thousand passengers in February 2025, a decrease of 
10.4 per cent compared with February 2024.

Summary of annual RPT activity

  YE Feb 2024 YE Feb 2025 % Change 
Total passengers carried (millions) 58.14 59.38 2.1
Revenue passenger kilometres (billions) 69.41 71.23 2.6
Available seats (millions) 74.05 74.01 -0.1
Available seat kilometres (billions) 86.08 86.71 0.7
Load factor % 80.6 82.1 1.5*
Aircraft trips (000s)  616.8 609.7 -1.2

* percentage point difference