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Years of high delays and cancellations following COVID-19 look to be over after the domestic airline industry recorded above-average performance for the last two months.
May 2025 marks the second month in a row that average reliability figures across all participating airlines have cleared the long-term averages, analysis by Australian Aviation can reveal, as Virgin Australia once again achieves a reliability trifecta.
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According to BITRE data for last month, 83.4 per cent of domestic flights departed on time and 82.2 per cent arrived on time, with 2.1 per cent cancelled; all three metrics were better than long-term averages of 81.8 per cent, 80.7 per cent, and 2.2 per cent respectively.
Virgin Australia and VARA bested Qantas and QantasLink for reliability yet again, with VA flights seeing 86.6 per cent on-time departures and 84.8 per cent on-time arrivals, compared to QF flights, which saw 83.2 per cent on-time departures and 82.5 per cent on-time arrivals. 0.8 per cent of VA flights were cancelled, compared to 2.9 per cent of QF services.
May also saw an end to VARA’s run of perfect months, with 1.3 per cent of flights cancelled.
Virgin chief executive Dave Emerson said the OTP figures are a “clear sign that our focus on reliability and laser focus on improvement is delivering results for our guests”.
“To take out the trifecta of best departure and arrival on-time performance, and the lowest number of flight cancellations of the major Australian airlines in May, is an incredible achievement and I’m proud of the entire team who have contributed to our strong position,” he said.
“We recognise that while we may not top the charts every month, we will always remain laser focused on providing a safe, reliable flying experience for all our guests. Thanks to the dedication of our incredible team that we continue to raise the bar.
“It’s an exciting time for Virgin Australia as we pursue our ambition to become Australia’s most loved airline and results like this give our guests confidence that when they fly with us, they’ll arrive on time, with award-winning service and our signature Virgin Flair.”
For its part, Qantas says it is achieving consistent monthly performance, hitting over 80 per cent on-time departures and arrivals for the past four months; Jetstar also achieved higher than 80 per cent on-time performance in May.
Ben Holland, head of Qantas’ integrated operations centre, said the Qantas domestic network is continuing to improve.
“We’ve continued to build on our domestic performance and in May achieved our best monthly result since 2019,” he said.
“We’re really proud of the work our people have put in to improve reliability and maintain strong performance across our operations.”
On-time arrivals (per cent)
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 84.8
- Qantas and QantasLink – 82.5
- Hinterland – 88.0
- Virgin Australia – 85.0
- Qantas – 82.9
- QantasLink – 82.2
- Jetstar – 81.5
- Skytrans – 80.9
- Rex – 73.8
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 70.5
On-time departures (per cent)
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 86.6
- Qantas and QantasLink – 83.2
- Hinterland – 91.5
- Skytrans – 88.6
- Virgin Australia – 86.9
- Qantas – 85.6
- QantasLink – 81.7
- Jetstar – 80.5
- Rex – 77.2
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 62.8
Cancellations (per cent)
- Qantas and QantasLink – 2.9
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 0.8
- Skytrans – 6.6
- QantasLink – 3.5
- Rex – 3.0
- Qantas – 1.9
- Jetstar – 1.3
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 1.3
- Virgin Australia – 0.8
- Hinterland – 0.4
