The Australian Government recognises the important role that aviation plays in servicing the needs of regional and remote communities across Australia and operates a number of programs to support this.

2024–25 Budget

In the 2024–25 Budget, the Australian Government announced:

  • the Regional Airports Program (RAP) will be extended with an additional $40 million in competitive grant funding over three years from 2024–25.
  • The Remote Airstrip Upgrade (RAU) Program will be extended with an additional $50 million over three years, to improve safety of remote airstrips and accessibility for people with disability.

Regional Airports Program (RAP)

The Regional Airports Program is a competitive grants program intended to:

  • improve the safety of aircraft, operators and passengers using regional airports or aerodromes
  • facilitate improved delivery of essential goods and services such as food supplies, health care and passenger air services
  • improve the connectivity of Australia's regions to domestic and global market opportunities
  • meet the operational requirements of aeromedical and other emergency services in the region.

In addition, under Round 4 eligible activities were extended to include projects that support air services to transition to net zero aviation technology.

In the 2024–25 Budget, the Australian Government announced the RAP was extended with an additional $40 million in competitive grant funding over three years from 2024–25.

Round 4

Round 4 was open for applications 8 October to 18 November 2024. Please contact the Business Grants Hub with any inquiries at Business website.

Round 3

On 20 January 2023, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon Catherine King MP announced $27.9 million in funding for 44 projects under round three of the Regional Airports Program.

Regional Aviation Access Program (RAAP)

The RAAP provides support for remote aviation where it is not commercially viable but is essential for the social and economic wellbeing of the communities they serve. The RAAP consists of the following individual programs:

  • the Remote Air Services Subsidy (RASS) Scheme
  • the Remote Aerodrome Upgrade program, and
  • the Remote Aerodrome Inspection program.

Remote Airstrip Upgrade (RAU) Program

The Remote Airstrip Upgrade (RAU) Program is a competitive grants program and provides funding for upgrades to remote airstrips. This funding continues the Australian Government's commitment to improving the safety of remote air transport and the access of residents to essential goods and services, including urgent medical care. 

Additional funding of $50 million over three years was provided in the 2024–25 Budget to extend the RAU program.

As outlined in the Aviation White Paper, eligible activities under the program have been expanded to include works to support access to air services for people with disability from Round 11.

Round 11 was open for applications 4 November to 13 December 2024. Please contact the Business Grants Hub with any inquiries at Business website.

Remote Air Services Subsidy (RASS) Scheme

The RASS Scheme subsidises a regular air transport service for the carriage of passengers and goods such as educational materials, medicines, fresh foods and other urgent supplies to communities in remote and isolated areas of Australia.

Remote Aerodrome Inspection (RAI) Program

The RAI program provides identified remote Indigenous communities with annual inspections and related services to assist those communities to meet their aviation safety obligations.

The Airservices Australia Enroute Charges Payment Scheme

The Airservices Australia Enroute Charges Payment Scheme provides a subsidy to air operators providing commercial passenger or aeromedical services to regional and remote locations through a reimbursement of enroute air navigation charges levied by Airservices Australia.

Information about the Scheme including guidelines can be found at https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure-transport-vehicles/aviation/regional-remote-aviation/enroute-charges-payment-scheme,

Please send any queries to enroute@infrastructure.gov.au.

Regional Aviation

Regional aviation refers to that part of the aviation industry that engages in scheduled commercial airline activity between regional areas or between regional areas and capital cities. Traditionally, regional aviation services have been identified as those airlines performing regular public transport services and whose fleets contain exclusively low capacity aircraft (38 seats or less or with a payload of 4,200 kilograms or less). However, Australia's regional airlines now commonly use larger aircraft. Some regional areas are also serviced by jet aircraft operated by major domestic airlines.

The Australian Constitution gives state and territory governments power over regional aviation as it is largely an issue of intra-state trade. Licensing of intra-state aviation services is administered respectively by:

Intra-state air services in Victoria, Tasmania, Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are deregulated.