Australian aircraft activity - summary
Summary of current report
This annual survey covers all civilian registered aircraft used in the Commercial Air Transport (CAT), general aviation, sport and recreation sectors of the Australian aviation industry.
The CAT sector is scheduled commercial air transport and non-scheduled commercial air transport operations. The general aviation sector is all other VH registered aircraft (other than commercial air transport). The sport and recreation sector includes aircraft registered with one of the following Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulated self-administration bodies:
- Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus)
- Gliding Australia
- Sports Aviation Federation of Australia (SAFA)
- the Australian Sport Rotorcraft Association (ASRA).
The major categories of flying are aerial work, own use business flying, instructional flying, personal and pleasure flying and other flying. In addition, the sport aviation segment includes operations by ultralight aircraft, gliders, hang gliders and gyrocopters. The survey results are merged with details from the civil aircraft register which gives access to additional relevant information including aircraft type, engine and fuel type, country and year of manufacture.
The base measure of this report is flying hours. All operators of Australian registered aircraft are asked to report the hours flown and landings across the various flying categories. The VH registered response to this year's reporting request was 70.2%.
Since 2020 aircraft registered with RA-Aus have been included in the annual Australian Aircraft Activity Report. The RA-Aus response to this year’s reporting request was 72.6%. Statistics for the remainder of the sport aviation segment are collected directly from the self-administrating associations.
Key indicators
In 2024 the total hours flown in Australia by Australian owned and operated aircraft increased by 1.4% to 3.63 million hours.
CAT hours flown by VH registered aircraft increased by 1.5% to 1.93 million hours. Hours flown by scheduled commercial air transport increased by 4.7% to 1.44 million hours, while hours flown by non-scheduled commercial air transport decreased by 6.9% to 489,442 hours.
General aviation hours flown by VH registered aircraft increased by 2% to 1.4 million hours. Sport and pleasure flying hours decreased (down 10% to 221,665 hours), instructional flying (up 14.5% to 437,458 hours), own-use business flying (up 1.3% to 131,330 hours) and aerial work (down 1.4% to 542,419 hours).
Sport aviation (ultralights, gliders, hang gliders and gyrocopters) activity generally experiences large swings in activity from year to year. In 2024, sport aviation activity decreased 1.5 % to 328,574 hours.
Hours flown in Australian aircraft activity (000's)—year ending December
| Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2024 | ||
| (thousands) | |||
| Commercial air transport | Scheduled | 1 371.6 | 1 436.2 |
| Non-scheduled | 526 | 489.4 | |
| Total commercial air transport | 1 897.6 | 1 925.6 | |
| General aviation (VH)* | Aerial work | 550.4 | 542.4 |
| Own-use business | 129.6 | 131.3 | |
| Instructional flying | 381.9 | 437.5 | |
| Sport and pleasure flying | 246 | 221.7 | |
| Other flying | 41.9 | 43.5 | |
| Total general aviation (VH) | 1 349.9 | 1 376.4 | |
| Sport aviation (non-VH) | 333.6 | 328.6 | |
| Total hours flown | 3 581.1 | 3 630.6 | |
*VH aircraft are registered with CASA
*non-VH aircraft are registered with self-administrating associations
Australian air distances directory
The Australian air distances directory lists distances between airports or other locations. BITRE uses these distances in our air transport statistics publications to calculate passenger-km, freight tonne-km, average trip lengths and other distance-based aviation measures. The directory is not a standalone statistical publication and is updated on an ad hoc basis.
General aviation study
General aviation (GA) is a diverse sector that is undergoing change. While overall GA activity appears to be declining slowly, it is not accurate to say that all parts of GA are declining.
Those parts of GA that are discretionary in nature such as pleasure flying appear to decline in more conservative economic times, while those parts of GA that are key to expanding industries such as aerial mustering have been growing strongly. Detailed economic analysis of these relationships is not currently possible due to the lack of financial statistics for GA however this report outlines some of the challenges facing GA and identifies some opportunities for the industry and government to respond to these challenges.
Australian aircraft activity
This annual survey covers all Australian registered aircraft used in the commercial air transport and general aviation sectors of the Australian aviation industry. The number of aircraft is provided, hours flown and landings by type of activity and state of operation. Also included are details by power type and type of fuel. Details are provided by age of aircraft and distribution by hours flown. Sport aviation activity as reported by the relevant association is included.