Australian airlines still cancelling, delaying more flights than normal

Australia's major airlines have improved their performance, but travellers are still being subjected to far more cancellations and delays than normal. Data from the Australian government's Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) released today shows less than three-quarters of domestic flights (73.4 per cent) arrived on time in January, and 3.1 per cent were cancelled.

While both figures are marked improvements on the December numbers of 63.6 and 5 per cent respectively, they're still well short of the long-term averages of 81 and 2.2 per cent. 

Virgin was the worst of the major airlines when it came to cancellations last month, scrapping twice as many of its flights as Qantas. While last month's cancellation rate is the same as it was for the same period last year, the on-time arrival rate has fallen from 76.7 per cent in 2023.

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA BOEING 737-8FE VH-YIQ (MSN 39925)

Virgin was the worst of the major airlines again when it came to cancellations, scrapping 5.3 per cent of its flights, compared to Qantas at 2.5 per cent and Jetstar at 2.4.

Virgin also lagged behind its major rivals when it came to on-time arrivals, with just 67.9 of its flights landing when scheduled. 

For Qantas, the figure was 76.6 per cent, with Jetstar falling in between the two main carriers at 71.5 per cent.

However, regional airline Rex outperformed its much bigger counterparts, cancelling just 0.6 of its flights and landing 77.3 per cent of them on time. It was also the only carrier to have more than 80 per cent of its services depart on time.

REX BOEING 737-8SA VH-8KH (MSN 44217)

The nation's newest airline, budget carrier Bonza, saw the biggest month-on-month improvements.
It cancelled almost 20 per cent of its flights during December, a month when wild weather played havoc with the air travel industry but brought that number back to 3.3 per cent for January.

BONZA BOEING 737- MAX 8 VH-UKH (MSN 61864)