Domestic aviation activity

Summary

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

There were 5.45 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in April 2025, compared with 5.29 million in April 2024 (up 3.1 per cent). This is also an increase of 1.5 per cent on pre-COVID April 2019 passenger numbers (5.37 million).

5.09 million passengers were carried on Regular Public Transport (RPT) flights in April 2025 (excluding charter operations), an increase of 3.2 per cent compared to April 2024.

For the month of April 2025, there were 50.9 thousand RPT aircraft trips, a decrease of 3.3 per cent on April 2024.

RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 6.18 billion for the month, compared with 5.90 billion in April 2024 (up 4.7 per cent).

Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), decreased to 6.33 billion in April 2025 compared to 6.50 billion in April 2024 (down 2.6 per cent).

The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) increased from 77.6 per cent in April 2024 to 82.8 per cent in April 2025. 

Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 25.6 thousand tonnes in April 2025, an increase of 2.5 per cent compared with April 2024. 

In April 2025, there were 2.14 million domestic passenger movements through regional airports, an increase of 1.5 per cent from April 2024.

Fixed-wing charter operators carried 367.3 thousand passengers in April 2025, an increase of 
0.9 per cent compared with April 2024.

Summary of annual RPT activity

  YE Apr 2024 YE Apr 2025 % Change 
Total passengers carried (millions)  58.51 59.31 1.4
Revenue passenger kilometres (billions)  69.83  71.29 2.1
Available seats (millions)  74.74  73.46 -1.7
Available seat kilometres (billions)  86.91  86.27 -0.7
Load factor % 80.3 82.6 2.3*
Aircraft trips (000s)   618.6  605.1 -2.2

* percentage point difference