Ongoing flight delays bolster Coalition case for traveller compo

More than one in four domestic flights was delayed in February and 1750 cancelled, adding weight to a Coalition push for better consumer protections.

More than one in four flights were delayed in February and 1750 cancelled, as domestic airlines’ on-time performance continued to lag pre-Covid levels of reliability.

In the same week as a “pay on delay” bill was introduced to the Senate in an effort to increase consumer protections in the airline industry, federal government data showed budget carrier Bonza was the only airline to operate more than 80 per cent of flights on-time in February.

In contrast Virgin Australia recorded the worst on-time performance with 28.5 per cent of flights arriving late, and 26.1 per cent delayed on departure.

Qantas was only marginally better with 27.3 per cent of arrivals behind schedule, and 25.8 per cent of flights taking off more than 15 minutes late.

Jetstar continued to improve its reliability, with 76.1 per cent of flights arriving on time, and 74.3 per cent departing to schedule.

Rex managed to get 76.3 per cent of flights away on time, and land 72.1 per cent within 15 minutes of schedule.

Domestic airlines’ on-time performance continues to lag pre-pandemic levels of reliability. Picture: Rex

Qantas had the highest rate of cancellations, at 5.8 per cent or 1111 flights in total, which it blamed on industrial action by the airline’s Network Aviation pilots in Western Australia.

Head of Qantas operations centre Daniel Dihen said almost half of those flights were axed because of seven 24-hour strikes.

“We also moved three Qantas Boeing 737s to Western Australia to help re-accommodate customers and mining charter flying, which also impacted on-time performance across our broader network,” Mr Dihen said.

“All strike action has now been called off and the schedule has returned to normal.”

Virgin had the second worst cancellation rate at 2.8 per cent or 312 flights, followed by Jetstar on 2.6 per cent (175 flights).

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the airline was working hard behind the scenes to improve reliability, pointing out the February data was better than the lows of previous months.

Jetstar said its performance reflected a major turnaround by the airline, with better reliability than Virgin for four months on the trot now.

Chief operating officer Matt Franzi said Jetstar’s customers had told them to do better, and they had.

“There is always more work to do and we’re continuing to look for ways to make our operations even stronger, including having more aircraft on standby in case things don’t go to plan and another seven new A321neo aircraft arriving by the end of the year,” Mr Franzi said.

The data compiled by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics came as the Coalition pushed for legislation to be passed providing compensation for customers when flights were unreasonably delayed or cancelled.

Senators Bridget McKenzie and Dean Smith said the “pay on delay” bill aimed to clean up the airline industry through “concrete protections for passengers”.

Labor Senator Tony Sheldon said the bill was no more than a “political stunt” ahead of the release of the government’s aviation white paper which was examining consumer protections.