Virgin knocks Qantas off reliability perch in December

Across all airlines, 74.7 per cent of flights arrived on time and 74 per cent departed on time, lower than the long-term averages of 80.7 per cent and 81.8 per cent respectively; however, fewer flights were cancelled – 1.8 per cent – than the long-term average of 2.2 per cent.

This is the first time Virgin has beaten Qantas on reliability since April last year, when it also won on all three measures. CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the airline was pleased to have come out on top in December, as “stakes are never higher than during the important summer holiday period”.

“We knew it was going to be an extremely busy time and we were prepared with a number of additional resilience measures, including more team members at airports and spare aircraft on standby,” she said.

“What is also great is that our on-time performance improved by 18.5 percentage points from December 2023 to December 2024.

“Over the past twelve months we have been working hard to improve our operational performance, and it is wonderful to see these positive results, especially at such an important time of the year.”

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.

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“We have been particularly focused on completing our schedule, and for 11 of 12 months in 2024 we recorded a higher completion rate than our major competitor,” said Hrdlicka.

“When unexpected disruption occurs, for example due to weather, we will prioritise completing a flight even if it means a delay is necessary.

“When challenges arise, our aim remains to get our guests to their destination on the day they have chosen to travel.”

For its part, Qantas has pointed to data showing it was the most reliable major domestic airline overall in 2024, beating Virgin Australia in all but two months last year. Analysis from Cirium had Qantas as the 10th most reliable airline in the Asia-Pacific region last year.

According to Qantas Domestic CEO Markus Svensson, 76.1 per cent of Qantas flights (Qantas and QantasLink combined) departed on time in 2024 compared to Virgin at 73.7 per cent, making it the most reliable domestic airline in Australia five years running.

“We know just how important it is for our customers to get to their destination on time and we’ve seen really positive improvements off the back of the work our teams have been doing over the past twelve months,” he said.

“We are pleased that we continued to see year-on-year improvement in our operational performance but there is still more work to do as it’s still not back at the levels that we are targeting.

“We are investing a lot in areas like engineering and efficient boarding processes to further improve our reliability and are working with the broader aviation sector on how we can lift the performance of the industry as a whole.”

On-time arrivals (per cent)

• Virgin Australia and VARA – 75.1
• Qantas and QantasLink – 73.7
• Hinterland – 87.3
• Skytrans – 78.9
• Rex – 75.9
• Virgin Australia – 75.3
• QantasLink – 74.3
• Jetstar – 73.3
• Qantas – 72.9
• Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 70.9

On-time departures (per cent)

• Virgin Australia and VARA – 74.4
• Qantas and QantasLink – 73.1
• Hinterland – 92.2
• Skytrans – 78.9
• Rex – 78.6
• Virgin Australia – 74.7
• QantasLink – 74.3
• Qantas – 71.3
• Jetstar – 70.1
• Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 64.5

Cancellations (per cent)

• Skytrans – 2.9
• QantasLink – 2.7
• Qantas – 2.6
• Rex Airlines – 2.5
• Jetstar – 1.5
• Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 1.1
• Hinterland – 0.9
• Virgin Australia – 0.6