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Summary

Travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak have resulted in severe disruptions to domestic air travel since April 2020.

There were 1.9 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in February 2021, a decrease of 59.4 per cent on February 2020.

1.6 million passengers were carried on RPT flights in February 2021, a decrease of 62.9 per cent on February 2020.

For the year ending February 2021 there were 13.3 million RPT passengers, a decrease of 78.4 per cent on the year ending February 2020.

RPT revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) performed were 1.72 billion for the month, down 65.1 per cent compared with February 2020.

Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs), decreased by 55.3 per cent compared with February 2020 to a total of 2.91 billion.

The industry wide load factor (RPKs/ASKs) decreased from 75.5 per cent in February 2020 to 58.9 per cent in February 2021.

In February 2021, most published routes recorded significant decreases in the number of passengers carried compared with February 2020.

For the month of February 2021, Brisbane – Sydney was Australia's busiest RPT route with 138.1 thousand passengers, a decrease of 59.5 per cent compared with February 2020.

Total cargo movements at Australian airports on domestic RPT flights were 29.8 thousand tonnes in February 2021, a decrease of 15.5 per cent compared with February 2020.

In February 2021, there were 954.8 thousand domestic passenger movements through regional airports, 44.8 per cent less than in February 2020.

Fixed-wing charter operators carried 244.0 thousand passengers in February 2021, an increase of 5.1 per cent on February 2020. Perth Airport accounted for 36.0 per cent of all charter passengers in Australia.

Summary of annual RPT activity

*percentage point difference