Domestic aviation activity

Further down this page are graphs and summary analysis relating to domestic aviation activity. Additional information can also be found at the following links:

• Time series data
• Australian Domestic Aviation Activity—Monthly Publications
• Australian Domestic Aviation Activity—Annual Publications
• Domestic Aviation Activity—Cities and Regions

Summary

There were 4.77 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in February 2026, compared with 4.67 million in February 2025 (up 2.1%).

This is also an increase of 3.8% on pre-COVID February 2020 passenger numbers (4.60 million).

4.41 million passengers were carried on Regular Public Transport (RPT) flights in February 2026 (excluding charter operations), an increase of 1.4% compared to February 2025.

For the month of February 2026, there were 45.8 thousand RPT aircraft trips, an increase of 1.4% on February 2025.

RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 5.14 billion for the month, compared with 5.07 billion in February 2025 (up 1.3%).

Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased to 5.62 billion in February 2026 compared to 5.45 billion in February 2025 (up 3.2%).

The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) decreased from 80.5% in February 2025 to 79.3% in February 2026.

Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 24.8 thousand tonnes in February 2026, an increase of 0.5% compared with February 2025.

In February 2026, there were 1.83 million domestic passenger movements through regional airports, an increase of 2.7% from February 2025.

Fixed-wing charter operators carried 359.8 thousand passengers in February 2026, an increase of 11.5% compared with February 2025.

Summary of annual RPT activity

* percentage point difference