Qantas crowned most punctual airline in June, ending Virgin Australia’s reign

Qantas has outperformed Virgin Australia for the first time this year in June, to be the most punctual airline, as partner Jetstar clocked the least cancellations.

For the first time this year, Qantas has delivered the best monthly on-time performance of any domestic airline, in a much-needed boost for the carrier.

Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics data for June, showed 81.2 per cent of Qantas flights took off on time, and 80.4 per cent arrived within 15 minutes of schedule.

Virgin Australia was the second best airline for departures, with 78.7 per cent of services getting away on-time, and Jetstar finished second for on-time arrivals, with a punctuality rate of 79.6 per cent.

Across all airlines, 2.4 per cent of flights were cancelled or 1058 in total, with Qantas clocking the highest rate for axed services at 3.5 per cent and Jetstar the best on 1.1 per cent.

The results highlighted the drastic improvement in performance by Jetstar — which has taken delivery of 21 new A321s and A320neos in the last two years, adding resilience to its operation.

Head of Qantas Integrated Operations Centre, Ben Holland, noted the airline’s performance was up 1.6 percentage points on the same time a year ago.

“Our domestic on-time performance in recent months has been at its highest levels since 2019 and this is a credit to the thousands of Qantas team members who deliver for our customers every day,” Mr Holland said.

It’s a timely boost for the airline which has been in damage control after a cyber attack in late June, that compromised the personal details of 5.7 million customers.

For Virgin Australia, it was the first month since November the carrier did not top the on-time performance ratings, and chief operations officer Chris Snook said the airline’s focus remained “firmly on delivering a stable and reliable service”.

“We’re pleased to see Virgin Australia achieve a 98.3 per cent flight completion rate in June with fewer than 2 per cent of services cancelled for the month,” said Mr Snook.

“For the first six months of the year, our average on-time performance rate of 82.1 per cent and average completion rate of 98.1 per cent, were the highest of the major Australian airlines.”

Adverse weather and ground delays were an issue for all carriers across June, with every day of the month impacted directly by weather.

Cancellations were highest on Canberra-Sydney with 11.9 per cent of flights axed, and

Emerald Airport in central Queensland took the prize for the most on-time departures and arrivals.

Proserpine Airport fared the worst for flight delays, and Gold Coast-Adelaide was the least reliable route for passengers hoping to get away on-time.

Punctuality and reliability are among the most sought-after qualities in an airline by travellers, after safety.