Airservices Australia Unveils March Aviation Network Overview

Airservices Australia has released its Australian Aviation Network Overview report for March 2024.

Highlights include:

• The improving trend in air traffic management outcomes was maintained over the last two months. In March, Airservices-attributed capacity constraints affected just 1.3 per cent of flights. Where GDP periods were implemented, 4 per cent of ground delay periods and 1 per cent of cancellations were attributable to Airservices - the lowest level in 12 months.
• In March 2024, the overall Australian aviation network recorded similar daily average flights compared to the previous month. This indicates that our industry is stabilising to a normalising trend.
• The last ten days before Easter Friday recorded a 12 per cent increase in flights compared to a similar period in 2023. Easter Thursday was another busiest day in the last four years. This illustrates the ongoing leisure-driven demand pattern.
• The overall industry on-time performance (OTP) continued to improve since November 2023, but remained below long-term and global benchmarks. In efforts to understand the building blocks of OTP, preliminary analysis has shown that disruptions during the first rotation of the day can potentially cause up to 45 per cent of subsequent flight arrival delays in the morning. Throughout the day, experience shows it is generally not possible to recover the impact given that 78 per cent of major airlines' fleet rotate through major airports multiple times a day. Measures to build layers of network resilience to protect the first rotation period are being progressed with industry inputs.
• The consistency of air traffic service provision improved in March 2024. The overall variations to published services reduced by 80 per cent compared to the average trend in the previous 12 months, following concentrated efforts to maximise resource availability to protect peak demand periods. However, further sustained efforts are needed to embed greater flexibility and resilience. This requires higher levels of resourcing (as compared to pre-pandemic) combined with transformation of processes and systems to meet long-term performance expectations.

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.