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There was a 0.5 per cent increase in international passenger traffic during July, according to statistics from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
The increase marks the fourth consecutive month that international passenger traffic has grown. For the year ending July 2009, international passenger numbers have increased by 0.4 per cent to 23.498 million compared to the same period last year.
Qantas remained the dominant international carrier, carrying 20.6 per cent of all international passengers, which was itself a fall of 3.6 percentage points compared to July 2008. By contrast, both Jetstar and Pacific Blue saw their market shares increase compared to the previous year to 7.2 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively.
International available seats increased by 3.7 per cent to 2.804 million, which saw seat utilisation fall by 2.3 percentage points to 77.3 per cent.
While passenger numbers were higher, freight recorded a decrease of 4.6 per cent, mainly driven by lower inbound volumes, while outbound freight increased by 1.3 per cent. Inbound freight traffic recorded month on month decreases of more than 20 per cent for December 2008 to May 2009 and the decrease recorded in July 2009 is the lowest since September 2008.
