Airservices Australia has released its Australian Aviation Network Overview report for February 2025.
Highlights include:
- In February 2025, the Australian aviation network recorded a near five per cent increase in average daily flights compared to the previous month, driven by strong domestic demand. After consolidating from the holiday peak, year-on-year international traffic growth remained positive.
- The overall industry operational reliability continues to improve in terms of on-time performance and first wave punctuality. This reflects the aviation sector’s collective efforts over the last three months, such as strengthening network governance, adding aircraft to meet surge demand and providing standby resources for disruption management.
- In February, we saw an increase in ground delay attribution to Airservices. This was driven largely by staffing impacts at Sydney tower on 14 February during a weather event, and in the airspace volume in northern New South Wales in the latter half of the month. We understand the impact this has on our customers and we have focussed efforts to improve our management and notification processes to provide advice as early as possible to minimise impacts.
- We are taking all necessary measures to strengthen our service resilience and response capability to unexpected disruptions. Currently, we are undertaking the largest recruitment and training program in Airservices’ history. Following the endorsement of 52 new air traffic controllers last year, we expect another 85 controllers to enter service this year. Our workforce resilience program is also a key priority to enable reliable and flexible resource utilisation through reforming our systems and processes.
- During this reporting period some significant events occurred impacting the airspace and industry. Airservices coordinated with government and industry stakeholders a response to the Chinese warship exercises in international waters between Australia and New Zealand. More recently, in preparation for Tropical Cyclone Alfred, our industry has again proven resilient and collaborative in times of crisis, ensuring the effective management of the event and resumption of normal operations. Airservices has a unique role in bringing the industry together and facilitating common situational awareness and informed critical decision-making. As an industry we will review our response processes to continually improve our crisis management capabilities.
About Airservices
Airservices Australia is a government-owned organisation responsible for safely and efficiently managing air traffic in 11 per cent of the world’s airspace, as well as the provision of aviation rescue fire fighting services at Australia’s busiest airports. We are regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and work closely with our customers and industry to support the long-term growth of the aviation industry.
