This annual survey covers all Australian registered aircraft used in the General Aviation (GA) and Regional Airline sectors of the Australian aviation industry.
The GA sector is made up of all non-scheduled flying activity in Australian-registered aircraft, other than that performed by the major domestic and international airlines. The major categories of flying are private, business, training, aerial agriculture, charter and aerial work. In addition, the sport aviation segment of GA includes operations in ultralight aircraft, gliders, hang gliders and autogyros.
The basic measure of General Aviation is flying hours. All owners of VH- registered aircraft (with the exception of the Australian domestic and international airlines) are surveyed annually and asked to report hours flown by each aircraft in various categories of operation, as well as total landings per aircraft. Response to this year’s collection increased from 71 per cent to 85 per cent.
The survey results are merged with details from the civil aircraft register, which gives access to other information such as aircraft type, engine and fuel type, country and year of manufacture, etc.
Statistics of the sport aviation segment of GA are collected from the controlling body of each sport once or twice a year. Like the rest of GA, flying hours are the prime measure of activity.
Key Indicators
General Aviation, 2006
- Total hours flown in the General Aviation and Regional Airlines sectors in 2006 were 1.94 million, a decrease of 2.1 per cent from 2005. Activity in the General Aviation sector was 1.70 million hours, a decrease of 1.6 per cent while Regional Airlines showed a decrease of 5.2 per cent to 241.5 thousand hours.
- Agriculture recorded the greatest decrease in activity with a drop of 35.0 per cent, from 95.0 to 61.7 thousand hours. Comments by respondents and on some returns mention the drought as a reason for decreased activity. Of all aircraft in General Aviation that reported a reason for nil flying, 2.3 per cent specifically indicated drought. If Agriculture was totally removed from the 2005 and 2006 figures then General Aviation hours would have recorded a 0.3 per cent increase.
- Private flying activity fell by 5.0 per cent in 2006. Offset against this is the growth in ultralight flying, as reported by Recreational Aviation Australia, from 92 900 to 120 200 hours. Other sectors to fall were Business (-3.4 per cent), Test and Ferry (-2.9 per cent) and Charter (-0.9 per cent).
- Aerial work (337 900 hours) and Training (424 000 hours) showed growth in 2006 of 6.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent respectively.
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The number of aircraft registered in scope of the General Aviation collection fell by 0.56 per cent to 11 117. However between 2001 (24 aircraft) and 2006 (82 aircraft) there has been a steady increase in the number of new fixed-wing single engine aircraft and hours flown. New rotary-wing single engine aircraft also increased over this time form 16 to 51 new aircraft respectively in 2001 and 2006.
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In 2001 29.9 per cent of fixed-wing single engine aircraft were 21-25 years old. In 2006 these aircraft have moved through to the next 5 year age category (26-30) and that category now makes up 28.1 per cent of fixed-wing single engine aircraft (12.7 per cent in 2001). The 21-25 year category has now dropped to 6.5 per cent of this category of aircraft.
- In 2006 27.0 per cent of fixed-wing single engine aircraft were over 40 years old. This is a significant increase on the 16.4 per cent that were in this category in 2001.
- The proportion of fixed-wing multi engine aircraft over 40 years old has increased from 4.9 per cent to 8.1 per cent over the same period.
Hours flown ('000') in General Aviation
| 227.2 |
144.1 |
424.0 |
61.7 |
337.9 |
21.7 |
478.4 |
1 695.0 |
| 239.2 |
149.1 |
415.8 |
95.0 |
318.8 |
22.3 |
482.6 |
1 722.8 |
| 247.2 |
143.0 |
352.2 |
86.5 |
312.4 |
22.3 |
481.4 |
1 645.0 |
| 239.7 |
143.4 |
420.3 |
69.7 |
322.5 |
21.3 |
429.2 |
1 645.9 |
| 270.2 |
142.2 |
410.8 |
70.8 |
327.1 |
20.9 |
445.7 |
1 687.7 |
| 261.7 |
144.9 |
406.2 |
106.7 |
294.2 |
23.2 |
466.0 |
1 702.9 |
| 248.5 |
136.3 |
413.6 |
115.0 |
296.9 |
27.9 |
476.7 |
1 714.8 |
| 275.9 |
153.3 |
448.8 |
126.3 |
306.6 |
26.6 |
504.6 |
1 842.2 |
| 263.0 |
163.8 |
478.5 |
139.2 |
312.4 |
26.6 |
494.6 |
1 877.9 |
| 266.7 |
176.0 |
449.5 |
128.4 |
307.4 |
27.6 |
483.7 |
1 839.3 |
| 261.6 |
182.8 |
444.9 |
117.4 |
285.7 |
26.2 |
480.4 |
1 799.0 |
| 251.0 |
189.1 |
430.6 |
94.5 |
302.4 |
28.2 |
465.7 |
1 761.3 |
| 256.9 |
198.5 |
419.5 |
78.9 |
301.7 |
25.9 |
424.4 |
1 705.7 |
| 265.3 |
212.3 |
436.8 |
89.2 |
278.8 |
28.2 |
393.4 |
1 703.9 |
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