Australia has experienced its busiest day post-COVID-19 for passenger air travel.
There were 2,799 flights on Thursday 18 September, the highest number since 2019, and Brisbane set an all-time record with 617 movements on 26 September, boosted by school holidays and major football finals, according to Airservices Australia. Australian Aviation Network Overview last month’s report.
“These milestones reinforce the leisure-driven nature of post-pandemic demand, highlighting how vacation travel and events continue to shape aviation growth,” Airservices said.
“Airlines added capacity and deployed larger aircraft to meet peak demand. International traffic was boosted by outbound tourism to nearby destinations such as Bali and Kuala Lumpur, codeshare agreements connecting to global hubs and inbound demand reflecting Australia’s position in high-value, long-haul travel segments.
“Airports are responding to this growth with multi-million pound investments in terminal expansion, technology and sustainability, as seen in the Sydney and Perth draft masterplans.
“Fleet renewal, such as the entry of the Airbus A321XLR into commercial service, is enabling more direct, point-to-point leisure routes within Australia and internationally.”
According to Airservices, last month’s growth was “led by major domestic airlines increasing their services and deploying larger aircraft to meet growing demand.”
Qantas Group (excluding Jetstar) averaged 849 flights per day, or 34.3 per cent of total flights, while Virgin averaged 480 per day (19.4 per cent) and Jetstar 357 per day (14.4 per cent); Rex was a distant fourth with 152 flights per day, or 6.1 percent.
“Southeast Asian airlines also showed strong gains, reflecting outbound travel to popular regional destinations during school holidays,” Airservices said.
“In contrast, Chinese airlines are consolidating frequencies, focusing on fleet and route optimization, and moving toward niche city pairs with strong trade and tourism links.”
In terms of Airservices’ own performance, air traffic control services variations in September also fell to their lowest level since July 2022, falling more than 90 percent from the monthly average, while ground delay program requests were reduced by 50 hours compared to last September.
“The airspace service variation was limited to a single area. However, the unplanned unavailability of staff in the Sydney terminal airspace on 12 and 19 September highlighted that resilience gaps remain.”
“We continue to focus on active recruiting, training and developing reserve capacity, while improving end-to-end workforce planning processes to prevent and mitigate the impact of such events.
“Strong adoption of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) in Brisbane and Perth continues to deliver benefits through optimized departure sequencing and dynamic, real-time distribution of delays more equitably.
“Since implementation, total daily departure delays in air traffic flow management at Perth Airport have decreased substantially from around 390 minutes (~4 minutes per flight) to just 50 minutes (less than one minute per flight).”
