Jetstar has most late-running planes of domestic airlines

THE best and worst domestic airlines for leaving and arriving on time have been named in a new report.

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JETSTAR had the most late-running planes of all major Australian domestic airlines in the past year, while Tiger continues to roar back following its grounding.

Only 77 per cent of Jetstar flights departed on time in the past financial year, compared to nearly 90 per cent of Tiger flights, new government figures show.

Tiger returned to the skies on a reduced schedule last August after a six-week suspension because of safety concerns.

The low-cost carrier has operated on a reduced schedule since then, with around 8,000 services flown in the past financial year compared to 20,000 the previous year.

Around 83 per cent of Qantas planes departed on time, but it operated about 120,000 domestic services over the year flying more planes in one week than Tiger did over the year.

It was followed by Virgin Australia at nearly 83 per cent.

Before its grounding flights, just 66 per cent of Tiger flights departed on time, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics figures.

Tiger also had the most on time arrivals among the major domestic airlines, followed by Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar.

A Jetstar spokesman said almost half of its domestic flying was concentrated on airports in south-east Queensland - a region which experiences a higher frequency of weather-related disruptions which can have a knock on effect on other services across the network.

"Aircraft patterns typically touch multiple airports within a given day,'' he said.

"A weather delay in Coolangatta could impact the Sydney service.''

Tiger Airways spokeswoman Vanessa Regan said the airline was pleased with the popularity and punctuality of flights over the past year and was continuing to resume domestic services gradually, putting operational excellence first.

"The airline is ramping up services with its new Sydney base and all 10 aircraft will be flying by September 2012 with up to 64 daily services by October 2012,'' she said.

Regional Express was the best performer of the regional airlines when it came to departing on time, followed by Skywest, Virgin Australia's regional operations and QantasLink.

QantasLink also had the highest percentage of cancellations at two per cent, followed by Jetstar, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia.

Skywest was the lowest at just 0.2 per cent.

More than five years ago 87 per cent of planes departed or arrived on time, but this has fallen back to around 80 per cent over the past two years.

Qantas domestic chief executive officer Lyell Strambi said she was happy with the airline's performance considering the disruptions to hundreds of flights caused by union industrial action last year.