Virgin ‘ghost flights’ keep airline on time

Virgin Australia has resorted to ‘ghost flights’ to ensure passengers are not left stranded in the event of crew illness or aircraft issues.

In an effort to improve on time performance, Virgin Australia is operating flights with no passengers to ensure crews are available to operate scheduled services. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

Virgin Australia pilots are being rostered on so-called ghost flights as the airline goes to extraordinary lengths to improve its on-time performance.

Called “dark flights” on the roster, they involve pilots flying aeroplanes with no passengers to particular destinations to ensure crew and aircraft are on hand in the event of illness or engineering issues.

They are different to standby flights, where crew are called in to fly a scheduled service carrying passengers, but no one could explain why they were called dark flights.

Virgin Australia confirmed the practice had been adopted during the September school holidays to avoid a repeat of the June-July holiday debacle, in which hundreds of flights were cancelled and many delayed due to sickness among crew.

Pilots said there were about 14 “dark flights” rostered a week, and they were paid regardless of whether the ghost services went ahead or not.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the practice was helping the airline provide great travel experiences for guests.

“This includes building additional flexibility into our operations during peak travel periods including the September school holidays to improve guest recovery options where disruption may occur,” she said.

Pilots were not enamoured with the ghost flights, which often meant long days of waiting around airports. “I don’t think that it’s a practice we would want to see continue,” said a pilot who did not want to be named.

“I’m sure other operators will have questions about (airport) slot compliance.”

The move followed record lows in on-time performance in July that saw only half of all Virgin Australia flights take off on time, and 52.5 per cent land within 15 minutes of schedule.

As well, 7.7 per cent of flights, or 914 services were cancelled in the month as the airline struggled with unprecedented levels of staff absenteeism from illness.

There was significant improvement in August with close to 70 per cent of services arriving on time; with the aid of dark flights, the airline expects to lead its nearest competitors in on-time performance in September.