Airservices Australia has released its Australian Aviation Network Overview report for September 2024.
Highlights include:
- In September 2024, the Australian aviation network experienced a slight increase (0.3 per cent) in daily average flights, coinciding with the school holidays and Melbourne AFL Grand Final. On Friday 27 September, Melbourne Airport recorded its busiest day for passenger traffic since the pandemic began, with 749 movements.
- Industry’s social licence for growth continues to be a priority, with initiatives like the Noise Action Plan, cross-boundary User Preferred Routes, and Continuous Descent Operations underway to improve noise and flight outcomes through proactive community engagement.
- Industry on-time performance (OTP) has improved in August by two percentage points due to better first-rotation performance which is a focus area for airlines. Lead indicators suggest industry OTP will continue to improve in the next OTP reporting cycle by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE).
- We are seeing steady improvement in Airservices’ operating performance. Only 0.1 per cent of total network flight delays were attributed to Airservices with 0.2 per cent of flights impacted by capacity constraints. Ground delay hours were at the lowest level in more than a year, with no Airservices’-attributable ground delay at major East Coast airports in September. This reflects ongoing service performance enhancements and a focus on resilience leading into the September school holidays.
- Overall, air traffic service variations were limited to fewer airspace groups and air traffic control towers. At control towers, service variations reduced by 61 per cent primarily due to Avalon tower returning to published hours. Ensuring the consistency of service remains our key priority through measures such as active recruitment, tighter leave management practices, improved training pass rates and recruitment strategies, and building resilient rosters.
About Airservices
Airservices Australia is the Federal Government-owned organisation responsible for the safety of 11 per cent of the world’s airspace and the provision of aviation rescue fire fighting services at Australia’s busiest airports. We work closely with our customers and industry to support the long-term growth of the aviation industry and are investing in technologies to position Australia at the forefront of innovation in the global aviation industry.
