General Aviation 2008
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 86 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
Total hours flown by Australian VH-registered aircraft in the General Aviation and Regional Airlines sectors reached 2.1 million in 2008, a decrease of 0.1 per cent when compared to the previous year. Activity in the General Aviation sector grew in 2008, with an increase in flying hours of 1.4 per cent to a total of 1.9 million hours, while Regional Airlines recorded a decline of 11.3 per cent in flying hours, the most significant decline since 2002.
Charter and Training continue to make up the two largest activity categories in the General Aviation sector, representing 27.9 per cent and 26.1 per cent respectively of all GA flying. Private and Business flying together represented 20.5 per cent of GA flying.
Agriculture recorded the greatest increase in activity with a rise of 25.9 per cent in hours flown. Drought conditions in 2006 and 2007 had a dramatic impact on agricultural flying and while hours have increased strongly in 2008 they remain 17.7 per cent below the 2005 levels.
Other flying categories which showed an increase in activity were Training (6.6 per cent), Private (2.5 per cent) and Aerial Work (1.5 per cent). Decreases in flying hours were recorded in Test and Ferry (down 15.1 per cent), Charter (down 4.8 per cent) and Business (down 1.1 per cent).
The number of aircraft covered by the survey grew 4.4 percent in 2008 to 12 045. The number of fixed wing, single engine aircraft increased by 3.7 per cent to 8217, or 68.2 per cent of all registered aircraft in the General Aviation and Regional Airline sectors. Fixed wing, multi-engine aircraft increased by 3.7 per cent to 1871 (15.5 per cent of the total). The number of helicopters increased by 9.3 per cent to 1619 (13.4 per cent of the total). The number of single engine helicopters increased by 8.8 per cent to 1472 while the number of multi-engine helicopters increased by 14.8 per cent to 147.
Within the above categories were 1133 amateur-built aircraft, accounting for 9.4 per cent of the total and representing an increase of 7.6 per cent over the previous year.
The average age of active aircraft was unchanged from the previous year at 26.5 years. A total of 544.7 thousand hours (or 26.3 per cent of all flying) were performed in aircraft under 11 years old, 444.9 thousand hours (21.5 per cent) in aircraft aged between 11 and 20 years old, 595.1 thousand hours (28.7 per cent) in aircraft between 21 and 30 years old and 487.6 thousand hours (23.5 per cent) in aircraft over 30 years old.
The average age of aircraft engaged in Regional Airline flying decreased from 19.3 to 17.7 years between 2007 and 2008. This reflects the increased use of new aircraft (including jets) and the reduced use of piston engine aircraft for Regional Airline operations. Between 2007 and 2008 the number of jet aircraft used by regional airlines increased from 18 to 27 while the number of piston engine aircraft fell from 63 to 44. The vast majority of Regional Airline flying is still conducted by turboprop aircraft (85 per cent).
Hours Flown in General Aviation (000’s) – years ended December
