Qantas lags behind global rivals in airline punctuality rankings

Airline punctuality rankings for 2024 show Qantas is falling behind the other global national carriers.

Qantas is lagging behind comparable national airlines in the latest on-time rankings.

The flying kangaroo landed 73.8 per cent of flights on time in 2024, analysis from aviation analytics company Cirium finds.

Qantas polled 10th in the Asia Pacific rankings, about 3.5 points behind Air New Zealand which came in fourth.

The data shows Qantas is not as reliable as similar national carriers. Mexico’s national carrier - Aeromexico - is on time 86.7 per cent of the time; 13 points ahead of Qantas.

The Japanese national carrier and competitor ANA take out the first and second spots in Asia Pacific. In the region, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Thai AirAsia, Vietnam Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Cathay Pacific all poll ahead of Qantas.

Qantas ranks 10th in punctuality among airlines based in the Asia Pacific region. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

Jetstar would need to run one-in-25 more planes on time to crack the top 10 global budget carriers list. Spain’s budget airline topped those rankings; Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia came in eighth and 10th.

None of the three Australian airlines made the top-10 for most cancelled flights in Asia Pacific. That list was dominated by Chinese carriers. Combined, China Eastern, China Southern and Air China canned 80,000 flights last year.

The Qantas spokesperson told NewsWire the airline had spare aircraft on standby and additional crew and airport team members rostered on during this summer.

The Cirium data shows Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin are far more punctual on international flights than domestic services.

Rex now only has a tiny sliver of Australian domestic flights, as the Virgin and Qantas/Jetstar monopoly soaks up 98 per cent of flights. Picture: NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Virgin had fewer cancelled flights (as a percentage) than Qantas in 11 of 12 months last year. Virgin also improved its on-time performance for domestic flights by more than six points to 73.9 per cent.

“We have also achieved industry-leading completion rates this year, with 98 per cent of scheduled flights completed, compared to 95.8 per cent in 2023,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

“In the event of unexpected disruption, we will prioritise completing a flight even if it means a delay is necessary. This is to ensure that wherever possible our guests reach their destination on the desired day of travel.”

Virgin says it has rebooked 135,000 Rex customers - free of charge - since Regional Airlines hugely scaled back operations; 125,000 of those people have flown their rebooked trips.

Since Bonza collapsed and Rex scrapped city-to-city routes, the average domestic airfare rose 13 per cent. The ACCC also found this increase coincided with a 41 per cent drop in the cost of jet fuel.

Virgin and Qantas/Jetstar now operate 98 per cent of domestic Australian flights.

Qantas declined to comment on the Cirium data, but a spokesperson pointed NewsWire to a host of Australian government data which showed Qantas outperformed Virgin in Australia in the past two years.

The widely cited and comprehensive Cirium analysis, released on Thursday, shows airlines running on-time reduces emissions as well as keeping customers happy.

“Better on-time performance generally resulted in lower carbon intensity,” Cirium market development director Andrew Doyle said.

“In simpler terms, when flights run on time, emissions go down.”

Originally published as Qantas lags behind global rivals in airline punctuality rankings