Statistics - Passenger Movements

Domestic Passengers
Townsville International Airport handled 865,800 passengers in 2001/2002, which makes it the thirteenth busiest airport in Australia in terms of the number of passengers (slightly in excess of 1% of the nation’s total passenger throughput).

Most passengers originate from domestic sources, particularly within Queensland. In 2000 Brisbane accounted for 67% of all domestic traffic, followed by Cairns with 17% and Mackay with 8%.

Figure 1 (click to view) shows the five most important domestic routes into and out of Townsville. The top five routes total more than 97% of total domestic/regional traffic.

The RPT operators currently serving Townsville are Qantas Airways (including Airlink), Alliance Airlines, Sunstate Airlines, Virgin Blue and Macair.

Figure 2 (click to view) shows actual and expected domestic and international passenger numbers up to the year 2018.

In 1990 the number of domestic passengers decreased significantly because of the effect of the pilots’ dispute. Other features of the period are the periods of moderate growth in the 80s and a period of accelerated growth following the deregulation of the domestic aviation industry in October 1990. The passenger levels of the 80s are inflated by Cairns passengers who travelled through Townsville. When the airlines decided in the early 1990s to overfly Townsville to and from Cairns, Cairns passengers were no longer included in the Townsville statistics.

Since 1995/96 domestic/regional passengers have grown at an average annual rate of 6% with a growth of 9% in domestic passengers and a growth of 14% in regional passengers.

International Passengers
There are 50 international airlines with rights to fly to Townsville but none are currently exercising those rights.

Annual international passenger movements through Townsville International Airport are expected to increase from 240 in 1998 to 41,000 in 2018.

International passenger numbers fell sharply in 1991 with the withdrawal of scheduled services. The upturn in 1993 was the result of the introduction of scheduled services by Garuda. These services ceased in 1994. MBA commenced services to Papua New Guinea in early 1997 and then withdrew later in October 1997. Flight West Airlines also commenced direct services to/from Papua New Guinea in October 1998 and then withdrew in February 1999.