General Aviation 2007
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 was 84 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 2007
- After declining in 2006, total hours flown in the General Aviation and Regional Airlines sectors in 2007 were 2.07 million, an increase of 7.1 per cent. Activity in the General Aviation sector was 1.83 million hours, an increase of 8.1 per cent, while Regional Airlines showed a marginal increase of 0.2 per cent to 241 900 hours.
- In the major flying activity categories the greatest increase was recorded in Charter flying with an increase of 13.8 per cent. The mining states of Western Australia and Queensland recorded the largest increase in Charter flying (an increase of 24 300 and 18 400 hours respectively). Agriculture, which suffered a drop of 35.0 per cent between 2005 and 2006—most likely as a result of the drought— recorded little improvement in 2007 (0.6 per cent increase to 62 100 hours).
- Training (455 400 hours), Aerial Work (368 000 hours) and Business flying (153 400 hours) also recorded substantial increases in 2007 (7.4 per cent, 8.9 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively).
- Private flying activity fell again in 2007 (2.0 per cent decrease to 222 700 hours). This is offset by continued growth in ultralight flying, as reported by Recreational Aviation Australia, from 120 200 to 138 300 hours (15.0 per cent increase). The strong growth in ultralight flying hours has resulted in this sector approaching the levels of activity being recorded for Private General Aviation flying, with the number of hours flown in ultralights equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the Private flying hours in General Aviation aircraft.
- After a decrease in 2006, the number of registered aircraft in scope of the General Aviation collection rose in 2007 by 3.8 per cent to 11 541. In 2007, the average age of active aircraft fell for the first time in more than a decade, reducing by 0.2 years to 26.5 years. Aircraft conducting Aerial Work (0.7 years), Charter (0.6 years) and Business (0.4 years) flying were the major contributors to this reduction, whilst the average age of aircraft engaged in Agriculture increased by 0.7 years. Aircraft used in Regional Airline flying increased in average age by 0.3 years to 19.3 years.
- A contributor to the overall reduction in average age is the number of new aircraft that have entered service in recent years. Aircraft categories accounting for the greatest numbers of new aircraft in the past five years are: rotary wing single engine (20 new in 2002 compared to 102 new in 2007), fixed wing single engine (24 to 87), fixed wing multi-engine (5 to 25) and fixed wing amateur-built (35 to 55).
- Fixed wing single engine aircraft make up 60.3 per cent of General Aviation aircraft. These aircraft are gradually progressing into older age categories. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of these aircraft under 26 years old halved from 40.5 per cent to 19.3 per cent. However, the number of hours performed did not reduce to the same extent, indicating that the newer aircraft are being used increasingly to fly more hours than the older aircraft. Conversely, in 2002, 59.5 per cent of fixed wing single engine aircraft were aged 26 and above, while in 2007 this had increased to 80.7 per cent, with the percentage of these aircraft over 40 increasing from 17.9 per cent in 2002 to 28.9 per cent in 2007 or more than 2 000 aircraft.
Hours Flown in General Aviation (000’s) – years ended December
