Virgin won Aussie domestic punctuality stakes for 2015
Virgin Australia took top honours for punctual take offs and landings on Australian domestic routes last year – and domestic airlines generally are becoming more punctual.
Latest figures compiled by the Bureau of Transport Infrastructure and Regional Economics (BITRE) show on-time performance over all routes operated by participating airlines (Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Regional Express, Tigerair, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 86% for on-time arrivals and 87% for on-time departures.
Cancellations represented 1.6% of all scheduled flights. The equivalent figures for 2014 were 84.3% for arrivals, 85.8% for departures and 1.5% for cancellations.
The figures for 2015 were above the long term average performance for all routes (82.6% for arrivals and 84.1% for departures). The rate of cancellations was higher than the long term average of 1.4%.
Virgin Australia achieved the highest on-time arrivals among the major domestic airlines at 89.3%, followed by Qantas at 88.6%, Tigerair at 83% and Jetstar at 80.3%. Regional Express (Rex) was the best performing regional airline for on-time arrivals at 85.3%, followed by QantasLink at 85.2% and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 84.2%.
The Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 86.9% for on-time arrivals while the Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 88.4%.
Virgin Australia also achieved the highest level of on-time departures for 2015 at 90.8%, followed by Qantas at 89.6%, Tigerair at 84.6% and Jetstar at 78.2%. The regional airlines were led by Regional Express at 88.2%, followed by QantasLink at 86.7% and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 85.7%. The Qantas network recorded 88.1% for on-time departures while the Virgin Australia network recorded 89.8%.
QantasLink had the highest percentage of cancellations (2.5%) during 2015, followed by Jetstar (2.1%), Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (2%), Virgin Australia (1.5%), Qantas (1.1%), Tigerair (0.9%) and Regional Express (0.3%).
Of the 61 routes which met the criteria for on-time performance reporting for all 12 months in 2015, the Newman-Perth route had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (94.9%) and the Brisbane-Mount Isa and Perth-Newman routes had the highest percentage of on-time departures (both at 95.4%). The Port Macquarie-Sydney route had the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (66.4%) and the Sunshine Coast-Melbourne route had the lowest percentage of on-time departures (73.3%).
Cancellations were highest on the Canberra-Sydney route at 5.3%, followed by the Moranbah-Brisbane route at 5.2%, the Sydney-Canberra route at 5.1%, the Brisbane‑Moranbah route at 4.9% and the Gladstone-Brisbane route at 3.5%.
Newman Airport recorded the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (94.8%) and the highest percentage of on-time departures (95.3%). Port Macquarie Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (72.6%) and the lowest percentage of on-time departures (73.8%). These figures only refer to reported routes and do not cover all flights at these airports.
Edited by Peter Needham
