Qantas maintained its lead over Virgin Australia as the most reliable airline group in Australia regarding on-time performance, although the smaller carrier is canceling significantly fewer flights.
The latest BITRE data published by the Department of Transport for November also reveals that the industry as a whole is still lagging behind long-term averages in terms of delays as post-COVID-19 issues persist, according to a publication by Aviation Australia.
Meanwhile, regional airline Skytrans continued to outperform its larger rivals, with an average of 98 percent for on-time arrivals and departures.
On-time arrivals (average in percentage)
- Qantas and QantasLink – 68.0
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 62.7
- Skytrans – 97.7
- Hinterland – 90.9
- QantasLink – 73.1
- Rex Airlines – 72.6
- Jetstar – 68.0
- VARA – 66.7
- Virgin Australia – 62.6
- Qantas – 60.3
On-time departures (average in percentage)
- Qantas and QantasLink – 68.2
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 64.0
- Skytrans – 97.7
- Hinterland – 93.0
- Rex Airlines – 76.2
- QantasLink – 73.3
- Jetstar – 66.2
- Virgin Australia – 64.1
- VARA – 61.1
- Qantas – 60.4
Cancellations (average in percentage)
- QantasLink – 3.6
- Qantas – 3.1
- Hinterland – 2.8
- Rex Airlines – 2.5
- Jetstar – 2.4
- Virgin Australia – 1.7
- VARA – 1.3
- Skytrans – 1.3
“For November 2024, on-time performance across all routes operated by participating airlines (Hinterland, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex Airlines, Skytrans, Virgin Australia, and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 68.4 percent for on-time arrivals and 69.0 percent for on-time departures,” the report states.
“The cancellation rate for the month was 2.6 percent. The equivalent figures for November 2023 were 64.1 percent for on-time arrivals, 65.9 percent for on-time departures, and 3.7 percent for cancellations«.
“This month, the on-time arrival figure was below the long-term average for all routes (80.7%), and the on-time departure figure was also below the long-term average (81.9%). The cancellation rate was above the long-term average of 2.2%.”
