Lockdowns keep one in three flights on the ground

Domestic flight cancellations exceeded 9000 for a second month in a row in July leaving airlines floundering.

Australia’s airlines have cancelled more than 18,000 flights in June and July in response to lockdowns and border closures.

For the second month in a row, in excess of 9000 flights have been cancelled throughout Australia as a result of lockdowns and border closures.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics’ report noted almost a third of all scheduled services were scrapped in July, or 9351 flights.

The miserable figure was just under the 9406 flights axed in June, which was the highest number of cancellations since records were first reported in 2003.

Jetstar had the largest percentage of cancellations in July with more than half of all services scratched, followed by Qantas and Virgin Australia on 29.6 per cent.

Rex cancelled 705 flights, or 17.8 per cent of all services.

The route most affected by cancellations was Sydney-Melbourne, where just under 80 per cent of the 665 scheduled flights did not operate.

Other routes where more than 75 per cent of flights were canned, included Sydney-Gold Coast (78.7 per cent) and Brisbane-Sydney (76.5 per cent).

Only two routes recorded no cancellations – Cairns-Townsville and Brisbane-Proserpine – while a handful of intrastate flights in Western Australia had very low cancellation rates.

Most interstate routes were affected by border closures in July, with Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney all going into lockdown at some point during the month.

The data highlighted the challenges facing airlines who have now stood down thousands of domestic workers in response to very low levels of flying.

The pilots, cabin crew and airport staff were not expected to return to work until borders reopened and confidence in domestic travel restored.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was set to provide a market update at the airline’s full year results announcement next week.

Along with low fares partner Jetstar, Qantas was on track for an annual loss of $2 billion in the 2021 financial year.

Mr Joyce remained hopeful of regular international flights resuming in December, providing Australia’s vaccination rate reached the 80 per cent target.