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Qantas has again pipped Virgin Australia as the most reliable major airline in Australia for on-time performance, though its cancellation rate was more than three times higher than Virgin’s.
Qantas and QantasLink services saw a 74.7 per cent on-time arrival and 75.4 per cent on-time departure rate for October 2024, according to the latest BITRE data, compared to 70.9 per cent on-time arrivals and 71 per cent on-time departures for the Virgin Australia network.
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Jetstar saw 73.2 per cent on-time arrivals for the month – just ahead of Qantas mainline services – and 71.3 per cent on-time departures, equal to Virgin mainline services.
“Qantas has continued its trend as the most on-time major domestic airline, with over three quarters of flights departing on time throughout October,” the Flying Kangaroo said in a statement.
“75.4 per cent of flights (Qantas and QantasLink combined) departed on time last month according to government data released today, up nearly three points on October 2023 and four points ahead of its main domestic competitor.
“Jetstar continued to deliver low fares and strong reliability in October, with 71.3 per cent of flights departing as scheduled and its lowest cancellation rate for the year of one per cent.”
On-time arrivals and on-time departures across the sector continue to lag the long-term averages, with 74.5 per cent on-time arrivals and 74.9 per cent on-time departures compared to the long-term average of 80.8 per cent and 81.9 per cent respectively; however, just 1.8 per cent of flights were cancelled in October, lower than the long-term average of 2.2 per cent.
Of the regional airlines, Queensland-based Hinterland Aviation and Skytrans both outstripped Rex for the month, with 95.5 per cent of Skytrans and 93.2 per cent of Hinterland flights arriving on time compared to 76 per cent of Rex flights, while both Skytrans and Hinterland saw 95.4 per cent on-time departures to Rex’s 78.7 per cent. Rex beat both on cancellations, however, at 1.1 per cent compared to Hinterland’s 1.3 per cent and Skytrans’ 6.3 per cent.
Virgin Australia had the lowest overall cancellation rate for the month at 0.8 per cent, compared to the Qantas network’s 2.8 per cent. According to Virgin Australia’s general manager Integrated Operations Centre, Danny Norman, it also carried a record number of passengers in October.
“More than two million guests travelled across our network in the month, which is higher than in 2019 when Virgin Australia operated long-haul international services,” he said.
“Contributing to this record performance is the fact more than 130,000 Rex passengers have been booked on Virgin Australia services free-of-charge since Rex suspended jet operations in July.
“More than 110,000 of those customers have already travelled with us, including over 23,000 in October alone.”
Virgin Australia says it prioritises completing a flight rather than cancelling it when facing service disruptions, resulting in higher delays and lower on-time performance, but believes this is a better outcome for passengers than cancelling services on the day of travel.
