Domestic aviation activity
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- Domestic Aviation Activity—Cities and Regions
Summary
There were 5.50 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in September 2025, compared with 5.36 million in September 2024 (up 2.6%).
This is also an increase of 1.4% on pre-COVID September 2019 passenger numbers (5.43 million).
5.13 million passengers were carried on Regular Public Transport (RPT) flights in September 2025 (excluding charter operations), an increase of 2.2% compared to September 2024.
For the month of September 2025, there were 52.0 thousand RPT aircraft trips, an increase of 2.2% on September 2024.
RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 6.27 billion for the month, compared with 6.10 billion in September 2024 (up 2.7%).
Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased to 7.69 billion in September 2025 compared to 7.29 billion in September 2024 (up 5.6%).
The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) decreased from 83.8% in September 2024 to 81.4% in September 2025.
Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 27.2 thousand tonnes in September 2025, an increase of 4.9% compared with September 2024.
In September 2025, there were 2.22 million domestic passenger movements through regional airports, an increase of 3.0% from September 2024.
Fixed-wing charter operators carried 377.2 thousand passengers in September 2025, an increase of 9.3% compared with September 2024.
Summary of annual RPT activity
| YE September 2024 | YE September 2025 | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total passengers carried (millions) | 58.87 | 59.93 | 1.8 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres (billions) | 70.35 | 72.29 | 2.8 |
| Available seats (millions) | 74.68 | 73.93 | -1.0 |
| Available seat kilometres (billions) | 86.98 | 87.29 | 0.4 |
| Load factor % | 80.9 | 82.8 | 1.9* |
| Aircraft trips (000s) | 616.6 | 601.7 | -2.4 |
* percentage point difference