Virgin Australia most punctual carrier in financial year
Virgin Australia has taken the punctuality prize, achieving the highest on-time arrivals among the major domestic airlines in the latest financial year, ending 30 June 2016.
It scored an on-time arrivals total of 89.5%, followed by Qantas at 88.8%, Tigerair Australia at 84.4% and Jetstar at 78.2%. QantasLink was the best performing regional airline for on-time arrivals at 86.4%, followed by Regional Express at 85.5% and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 83.8%.
In a summary 2015-16 financial year released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics 
(BITRE), on-time performance over all routes operated by participating airlines (Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Regional Express, Tigerair Australia, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 86.1% for on-time arrivals and 86.7% for on-time departures.
Cancellations represented 1.6% of all scheduled flights. The equivalent figures for 2014-15 were 85.1% for arrivals, 86.5% for departures and 1.4% for cancellations.
The figures for 2015-16 were above the long term average performance for all routes (82.8% for arrivals and 84.2% for departures). The rate of cancellations was higher than the long-term average of 1.4%.
The Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 87.5% for on-time arrivals while the Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 88.8%.
Virgin Australia also achieved the highest level of on-time departures for 2015-16 at 90.6%, followed by Qantas at 89.7%, Tigerair Australia at 85.5% and Jetstar at 75.1%. The regional airlines were led by Regional Express at 88.5%, followed by QantasLink at 87.1% and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 85.2%. The Qantas network recorded 88.3% for on-time departures while the Virgin Australia network recorded 90%.
QantasLink had the highest percentage of cancellations (2.6%) during 2015-16, followed by Jetstar (2.2%), Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (2.1%), Virgin Australia (1.5%), Qantas (1.1%), Tigerair Australia (1.0%) and Regional Express (0.5%).
Of the 63 routes which met the criteria for on-time performance reporting for all 12 months in 2015-16, the Brisbane-Mount Isa route had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (95.8%) and the highest percentage of on-time departures (96.3%). The Port Macquarie-Sydney route had the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (68%) and the Sunshine Coast-Melbourne route had the lowest percentage of on-time departures (69.6%).
Cancellations were highest on the Moranbah-Brisbane route at 7.2%, followed by the Brisbane‑Moranbah route at 6.9%, the Canberra-Sydney route at 5.5%, the Sydney-Canberra route at 5.3% and the Gladstone-Brisbane route at 3.6%.
Mount Isa Airport recorded the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (95.8%) and Newman Airport recorded the highest percentage of on-time departures (94.9%). Port Macquarie Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (72.9%) and Sunshine Coast Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on-time departures (72%). These figures only refer to reported routes and do not cover all flights at these airports.
Edited by Peter Needham
