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Qantas was the most on-time major airline group in the 2024–25 financial year, according to data from the Department of Transport.
Official BITRE figures released for the last financial year showed that Qantas Group beat Virgin Australia overall on both on-time arrivals and on-time departures, but that Virgin had the highest completion rate of the major airlines.
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The Qantas network – Qantas and QantasLink combined – had an on-time arrival rate of 76.6 per cent for the year, compared to the Virgin Australia network’s (Virgin Australia and VARA) 75.6 per cent and Jetstar’s 74.8 per cent.
For on-time departures, Qantas’ network again beat Virgin’s at 77.1 per cent and 76.5 per cent respectively, with Jetstar notching up 72.7 per cent.
“Qantas achieved its best on time performance since 2019 with more than 80 per cent of flights departing on time in the second half,” said Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson in August.
“We know we still have more work to do, and we are focused on making sure that we are reducing cancellations and delivering on time performance going forward.”
Virgin, however, had a higher completion rate than Qantas, with just 1.6 per cent of flights cancelled for the year compared to Qantas’ 2.9 per cent and QantasLink’s 3.4 per cent.
Additionally, when taken individually, Virgin Australia beat both Qantas Domestic and Jetstar for on-time arrivals and departures.
“We are pleased to have achieved the lowest cancellation rate of the major Australian airlines for the 2024-25 financial year. In the event of disruption, we will prioritise completing a flight in order to get our guests to their destinations on the desired day of travel wherever possible,” a Virgin spokesperson said.
“These results reflect the dedication of our team members and our ongoing focus on punctuality and strengthening our performance across our domestic network for our guests.
“We are focused on continuous improvement and maintaining a stable and reliable operation for those who choose to fly with us.”
Across all participating airlines, the average was 76.3 per cent for on-time arrivals and 76.8 per cent for on-time departures, with a cancellation rate for the year of 2.5 per cent; this was worse than the long-term average on all three measures.
Queensland-based regional carrier Hinterland Aviation was the best performer in every metric, with 88.3 per cent on-time arrivals, 92.2 per cent on-time departures, and 1.2 per cent cancellations.
