Domestic aviation activity

Information and data on domestic aviation can be found at the following links.

• Australian domestic aviation activity—monthly publications
• Australian domestic aviation activity—time series
• Australian domestic aviation activity—annual publications

Below are graphs and summary analysis relating to domestic aviation activity.      

Summary

There were 5.76 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in July 2026. There is virtually no change compared with July 2025. This is also an increase of 1.0% on pre-COVID July 2019 passenger numbers (5.70 million).

5.33 million passengers were carried on Regular Public Transport (RPT) flights in July 2026 (excluding charter operations), a decrease of 0.3% compared to July 2025.

For the month of July 2026, there were 52.1 thousand RPT aircraft trips, a decrease of 1.4% on July 2025.

For the year ending July 2026, there were 60.73 million RPT passengers, an increase of 1.8% on the year ending July 2025.

RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 6.58 billion for the month, compared with 6.61 billion in July 2025 (down 0.5%).

Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), decreased to 7.90 billion in July 2026 compared to 7.92 billion in July 2025 (down 0.2%).

The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) decreased from 83.4% in July 2025 to 83.2% in July 2026. 

Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 26.7 thousand tonnes in July 2026, a decrease of 5.9% compared with July 2025. 

In July 2026, there were 2.35 million domestic passenger movements through regional airports. There was virtually no change compared to July 2025.

Fixed-wing charter operators carried 432.2 thousand passengers in July 2026, an increase of 4.9% compared with July 2025.
 

Summary of annual RPT activity

* percentage point difference