Regional Express tops again for punctuality in July

Regional Express (Rex) maintained its ranking as the most punctual for on-time arrivals and departures among Australia’s domestic carriers for a second straight month in July, new figures show.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) monthly report showed Rex had 80.4 per cent of its flights arrive on schedule in July, while 82.9 per cent of its flights departed on time.

While this was down slightly from 81.8 per cent and 84.6 per cent in June, it was enough for Rex stay on top of the punctuality stakes in July.

Next best was QantasLink, which had 79.7 per cent and 80.4 per cent of its flights arrive and depart on time, respectively, in July.

At the other end of the spectrum, Virgin Australia’s low-cost carrier (LCC) Tigerair Australia continued to trail other domestic carriers in July, recording 61.2 per cent of flights arriving on time and 64.1 per cent of departures leaving on time, a decline on its June performance of 66.1 per cent and 68.2 per cent, respectively.

The Virgin Australia-owned low-cost carrier (LCC), which is in the process of transitioning its fleet from Airbus A320s to Boeing 737-800s, has trailed all domestic carriers in terms of punctuality for arrivals and departures since October 2018.

The BITRE report defines a flight as on time if it arrives or departs within 15 minutes of its scheduled time.

The overall on-time performance by the participating airlines (Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex, Tigerair Australia, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) was 73.9 per cent for flights arriving on time and 75.7 per cent for on-time departures.

These figures were lower than the long-term average performances for arrivals across all routes of 82.4 per cent and departures of 83.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, 2.5 per cent of scheduled flights were cancelled in July.

Virgin Australia Regional Airlines had the lowest cancellation rate at 1.3 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia at 1.4 per cent and Rex at 1.7 per cent.

The BITRE report noted Jetstar and Qantas jet services used Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) to electronically measure on-time performance, while Qantas services and non-Qantas carriers collected data manually from pilots, gate agents and/or ground crew.

Routes

Of the 65 routes operated by the domestic carriers in July, flights from Sydney to Proserpine had the highest percentage of flights arriving on time (97.1 per cent). The Perth-to-Newman route had the highest percentage of flights departing on time (93.1 per cent).

By contrast, flights from the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne had the lowest percentage of flights arriving on time at 45.1 per cent, while Darwin to Melbourne had the lowest percentage of on-time departures (45.1 per cent).

The highest number of cancellations was on the Hamilton Island-Brisbane and Melbourne-Sydney routes (9.8 per cent).

Airports

Newman Airport recorded the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (91 per cent) and the highest percentage of on-time departures (90.3 per cent).

Melbourne Airport had the lowest level of on-time arrivals at 60.6 per cent, while the lowest level of on-time departures was at Ayers Rock (50 per cent). These figures only referred to reported routes, not all flights at these airports. [ends]

On-time performance for July

Source: BITRE