The Hon Anthony Albanese MP: Record passengers numbers for domestic aviation industry

Total domestic passenger numbers increased by three million, a rise of 5.8 per cent compared to the previous year, with the number of available seats up 6 per cent to over 70 million.

Domestic passengers racked up a staggering 63 billion kilometres of air travel - an increase of seven per cent. This was despite the impact of the Chilean volcanic ash cloud, which caused major disruptions to flights.

The resilience of the industry and the confidence of Australians to continue flying shows the strength of the Australian economy compared to the rest of the world.

Flights between capital cities and major regional centres showed the fastest passenger growth:

· Cairns - Melbourne, up 30.2 per cent

· Newman - Perth, up 20.6 per cent

· Melbourne - Newcastle, up 17.6 per cent

· Sunshine Coast - Sydney, up 16.7 per cent

· Brisbane - Mackay, up 16.4 per cent.

The five busiest routes were:

· Melbourne - Sydney, 7.9 million passengers

· Brisbane - Sydney, 4.4 million passengers

· Brisbane - Melbourne, 3.1 million passengers

· Adelaide - Melbourne, 2.3 million passengers

· Gold Coast - Sydney, 2.3 million passengers.

Among the nation's ten biggest domestic airports, Perth recorded the fastest growth in passenger numbers, up 9.1 per cent to more than 7.6 million.

Sustaining this growth is at the heart of the Australian Government's Aviation White Paper, which provides industry with certainty to plan ahead and invest in the longer term.

Refer to full documentation in attachments box, located at the top left, below the headline.