Uluru the worst for airline delays

The gateway to one of Australia’s biggest tourist drawcards is the worst in the country for flight delays.

Voyages director of public relations Karena Noble said delays at Ayers Rock Airport were caused mainly by the late arrivals of aircraft, affecting the on-time performance of inbound and outbound flights. Picture: iStock

The gateway to one of Australia’s biggest tourist drawcards is the worst in the country for flight delays.

Data compiled by the federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics found just 22.6 per cent of flights departing Ayers Rock Airport were on time — meaning 77.4 per cent were late.

The result was the worst recorded in the history of monthly on-time performance data collected by the bureau.

The airport, about 20 minutes drive from Uluru, is operated by Voyages Indigenous Tourism and handles about 300,000 passengers a year.

Voyages director of public relations Karena Noble said delays at Ayers Rock Airport were caused mainly by the late arrivals of aircraft, affecting the on-time performance of inbound and outbound flights.

“This was caused by one of three factors, including high winds between the east coast and Ayers Rock, engineering issues to flights which required attention and delays due to weather events at both Sydney and Melbourne airports,” Ms Noble said.

Jetstar managed to get fewer than 10 per cent of flights away on time out of Ayers Rock Airport last month, the second-worst month on record. It is understood headwinds contributed to the delays.

Virgin Australia recorded a 35.5 per cent rate for on-time departures from Ayers Rock in the same month, and landed 58.1 per cent of arrivals on time.

A spokeswoman said Virgin Australia recognised there was room for improvement on the Uluru-Sydney route. “Occasionally these ser­vices are affected by adverse weather, operational requirements or other factors which may affect our on-time performance,” she said.