Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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People travel within Australia for many reasons, including school, business, recreation and travel to and from work. This section provides details of rail and air passenger activity within Australia.

Rail passenger activity

The number of passengers carried by private and government rail operators is shown in table 23.17. Since 1992-93 there have been annual increases in the number of rail passengers, urban and non-urban passengers increasing by 27.3% and 65.7% respectively. Heavy rail has consistently accounted for more than three-quarters of urban rail passenger operations.

23.17 RAIL PASSENGER OPERATIONS(a)
	Urban
	Heavy rail	Tram and light rail	Total	Non-urban	Total
	million persons	million persons	million persons	million persons	million persons
1992-93	396	103	498	7	505
1993-94	402	106	507	8	516
1994-95	420	111	530	9	539
1995-96	441	116	556	9	566
1996-97	456	118	574	10	584
1997-98	457	121	578	10	588
1998-99	463	123	585	10	595
1999-2000	482	137	619	11	629
2000-01	498	137	634	12	646
(a) Excludes historical and tourist services. There are no rail passenger services in Tas., NT or ACT.
Source: Australasian Railway Association Inc.

Air passenger activity

As at 30 June 2002 there were two major domestic carriers operating in Australia, Qantas and Virgin Blue. A third major domestic carrier, Ansett Australia, ceased operations in September 2001. As at 30 June 2002, 27 regional operators provided regular public transport air services to about 170 airports in Australia.

The Aircraft fleet section provides details of domestic fleets.

Total passenger departures increased by 13.4% over the five years to 2001, with the largest increase (7.3%) occurring between 1999 and 2000 (table 23.18). The major domestic and regional airlines both increased their number of passengers over these five years. In 2001, the major domestic airlines accounted for 82.1% of total Australian domestic passenger departures. Over the five years to 2001, the regional airlines increased their share of passenger departures from 16.8% in 1997 to 17.9% in 2001.

The major domestic airlines reduced the overall ratio of vacant seat kilometres to distance travelled between 1997 and 2000. In 2000 the ratio was 22.6%, down from 25.6% in 1997. However, in 2001 this ratio increased to 23.5%.

23.18 DOMESTIC AIRLINE ACTIVITY
		Units	1997	1998	1999	2000(a)	2001(a)
Passenger departures(b)
	Domestic airlines	'000	23,375	23,575	24,392	25,660	26,152
	Regional airlines	'000	4,713	4,851	5,039	5,929	5,700
	Total	'000	28,088	28,426	29,431	31,590	31,852
Other activity (domestic airlines only)
	Passenger kilometres performed(c)	million	26,357	26,774	27,853	29,601	30,410
	Seat kilometres available(d)	million	35,403	35,467	36,119	38,232	39,739
	Percentage of vacant seat kilometres	%	25.6	24.5	22.9	22.6	23.5
(a) Includes estimates for regional airlines data. (b) The unit of measurement is traffic on board (which includes transit traffic). Includes revenue passengers only. (c) The sum for all flights of the number of passengers on each flight multiplied by the distance travelled. (d) The sum for all flights of the number of seats on a flight multiplied by distance travelled.
Source: Department of Transport and Regional Services.

Table 23.19 shows the number of passengers boarding or departing by major domestic and regional airlines at the main airports. In 2001 all capital city airports except Darwin, Canberra and Perth recorded increased passenger movements compared with 2000. Hobart recorded the strongest growth (with 42.9%), followed by Brisbane (12.9%), Adelaide (5.8%), Melbourne (2.9%) and Sydney (1.8%). Sydney airport recorded 16.6 million passenger movements, Melbourne airport 13.3 million movements and Brisbane almost 10 million movements. Of the smaller airports Launceston recorded the highest growth in movements between 2000 and 2001 (72.2%), followed by Townsville (23.7%).

By contrast, passenger movements at Darwin airport dropped by 6.5% over the same period, and movements at Canberra and Perth airports both fell by 3.5%.

23.19 PASSENGER MOVEMENTS(a) WITH MAJOR DOMESTIC AND REGIONAL AIRLINES AT PRINCIPAL AIRPORTS
	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Airport	'000	'000	'000	'000	'000
Sydney	14,070	(b)14,276	(b)14,879	16,265	(b)16,565
Melbourne	11,228	11,429	(b)11,902	12,939	(b)13,308
Brisbane	7,470	(b)7,438	(b)7,833	8,811	(b)9,951
Adelaide	3,636	(b)3,789	(b)3,869	3,982	(b)4,212
Perth	3,153	3,236	3,258	3,463	3,342
Canberra	1,788	1,805	1,901	2,041	(b)1,970
Hobart	832	(b)856	(b)878	928	(b)1,326
Darwin	823	854	(b)879	907	(b)848
Cairns	1,918	1,916	(b)2,023	2,133	(b)2,025
Coolangatta	1,918	1,889	(b)1,938	1,918	(b)1,795
Townsville	686	(b)704	(b)740	772	(b)955
Launceston	559	536	(b)545	532	(b)916
(a) The number of passengers on board arriving at or departing from each airport. Includes passengers in transit who are counted as both arrivals and departures at airports through which they transit. (b) Includes estimates for unreported data.
Source: Department of Transport and Regional Services.

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