Qantas and Virgin bicker over who had more turnbacks

A heated public debate has erupted between Australia’s major airlines over who has more problems with their aircraft.

Qantas and Virgin Australia planes at Sydney Airport.

A heated public debate has erupted between Australia’s two major airlines over who has more problems with their aircraft.

After weeks of media heat over a spate of turnbacks by Qantas flights, CEO Alan Joyce wrote to frequent flyers to explain the issue and followed up with morning television.

Since January 18, when a Qantas 737 made an emergency landing after an engine failed en route from Auckland to Sydney, eight flights have turned back for various reasons, mostly technical or mechanical problems.

Speaking on the Today show on Friday, Mr Joyce said Virgin Australia had experienced just as many turnbacks as Qantas in recent weeks. “It is a common thing. It is actually very rare, but more common than people would think,” Mr Joyce said.

The comments infuriated the Jayne Hrdlicka-led Virgin Australia which issued a tersely worded statement “to correct serious misinformation provided by our major competitor’s CEO regarding our flying performance”.

“Virgin Australia can confirm that in January we flew approximately 26 per cent more 737 flights compared to our major competitor and experienced half of the air returns they experienced,” said a spokeswoman.

“We can confirm that Virgin Australia has four engineering-related air returns in its main line fleet in January 2023 — not eight as suggested by our competitor — and one in February.”

She provided a list of the occurrences on January 10, 11, 20 and 28 and on February 2.

“All of the air returns conducted by Virgin Australia were done in accordance with standard operating procedures and there was never any risk to the flight,” she said. “We are surprised to see our major competitor using safety data inaccurately in the way they have today.”

In happier times — Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka at Sydney Airport in March 2021. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

Late Friday, Qantas hit back suggesting Virgin Australia was selectively using publicly available data that showed eight turnbacks by the carrier. They included incidents on January 5, 14, a second one on January 20 and another on January 22.

“It’s strange that Virgin would choose to be defensive about turnbacks when our whole

message today was that they are a normal and safe part of aviation,” said a Qantas spokesman.

“And it’s disappointing that their only contribution to the public discussion on this topic has been to whittle down their turnback figures through careful definitions.”

He said whether a turnback was for engineering reasons, a bird strike, a sick passenger or weather, they were “all ultimately about safety and don’t need to be minimised”.

To rub salt into the wounds, Qantas also pointed out the airline’s on time performance over the summer peak period was superior to Virgin Australia’s by around 7 per cent.

Since emerging from administration in late 2020, Virgin Australia has increased pressure on Qantas which copped the brunt of traveller fury last year when delays, mishandled bags and cancellation rates soared.

Virgin escaped much of the public wrath and passengers flocked to fly on the airline, resulting in a first half profit for the 2023 financial year of around $125m.

Later this year, US owners Bain Capital are expected to return at least part of Virgin Australia to public ownership, with an IPO in the planning.