The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) has reported on-time performance by Australia’s major airlines for July as being “worse than the long-term average performance for all routes”. Following a similar trend, the rate of flight cancellations was also higher.
For July 2013, on-time performance over all routes operated by participating airlines averaged 78.3 per cent for on-time departures and 76.2 per cent for on time arrivals. The equivalent figures for July 2012 were 79.0 per cent for departures and 77.1 per cent for arrivals. The average since collections began in November 2003 is 83.6 per cent for departures and 82.2 per cent for arrivals.
Cancellations represented 2.0 per cent of all scheduled flights, more than the long-term average of 1.3 per cent, but better than for July 2012 when cancellations reached 2.3 per cent.
Of the major domestic airlines, Qantas achieved the highest level of on-time departures for July at 82.9 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia at 77.3 per cent, Jetstar at 73.7 per cent and Tigerair at 66.6 per cent. Regional airlines were led by Regional Express at 84.5 per cent, followed by QantasLink at 77.2 per cent and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 74.4 per cent.
Qantas also achieved the highest on-time arrivals among the major domestic airlines at 81.7 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia at 75 per cent, Jetstar at 74.5 per cent and Tigerair at 60.5 per cent. Regional Express was the best performing regional airline for on time arrivals at 81.3 per cent, followed by QantasLink at 73.8 per cent and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 71.8 per cent.
QantasLink had the highest percentage of cancellations (3.3 per cent) during the month, followed by Jetstar (2.1 per cent), Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (1.8 per cent) Virgin Australia (1.7 per cent), Tigerair (1.6 per cent), Regional Express (also 1.6 per cent) and Qantas (1.3 per cent).
Of the 61 routes analysed by BITRE, Sydney-Sunshine Coast had the highest percentage of on-time departures (91.8 per cent) while the Alice Springs-Melbourne route had the lowest percentage of on-time departures (40.8 per cent). The Perth-Port Hedland route had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (93.1 per cent) while the Proserpine-Brisbane route had the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (35.3 per cent).
Cancellations were highest on the Moranbah-Brisbane route at 9.5 per cent, followed by Brisbane-Moranbah at 9.2 per cent, Canberra-Sydney at 6.1 per cent, Adelaide-Gold Coast at 5.6 per cent and Sydney-Canberra at 5.5 per cent.
Perth beat Canberra and Sydney for on-time departures, but all three airports failed to make the top 10 airports for on-time arrivals.
