The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Mr Anthony Albanes, announced 2010/2011 a record year for international and domestic passenger numbers in Australia.This is the ninth year in a row an increase in numbers was recorded.
The number of international passengers increased by 7 per cent to 27.6 million pasengers whilst domestic numbers were up 6 per cent to 54 million passengers. Sydney continuse to be the busiest airport with nearly 36 million pasengers, up 4.4 per cent. Perth recorded the biggest increase. Passenger numbers at Perth increased 9 per cent to 11 million.
Mr Albanese noted Australia's aviation industry supports 50,000 jobs and injects $5 billion into the Australian economy each year.
The data used was derived from the Avline 2010-11 report which is available at www.bitre.gov.au. Avline is a publication by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE). Avline provides a summary of Aviation related data drawing on a range of sources including BITRE, ABS, Airservices and the US Energy Information Administration.
It should be noted while the number of passengers have increased over the last nine years, the number of Air Traffic Controllers has remained relatively static.
http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/aa/releases/2012/March/aa035_2012.aspx for a copy of the media release.