Compared to Virgin, More Qantas Flights Depart On-Time

12th Jun 2012

Based on the analysis of the Bureau of Infrastructure on the country's major airlines performance statistics, it shows that from January to April this year, Australia's flag carrier outperforms Virgin Australia on on-time flights from 41 domestic airports. However, the latter outperformed Qantas in 15 routes.

If the plane departs within 15 minutes of its scheduled departure, the flight is considered on-time.

Of all the major airlines serving domestic destinations, Virgin Australia edges out Qantas by 30 flights daily, flying 380 flights a day as against Qantas' 350 flights. At far third is Tiger Airways who has a daily average of 35 flights.

On average per year, however, Qantas made a slight edge over Virgin having an 87% on-time departures for its domestic flights while Virgin had 81%.

The flag carrier led overall for flights departing major airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Ayers Rock and Townsville. Virgin, on the other hand, made its passengers happy leaving Broome, Darwin and Perth on time.

Virgin Australia had almost 96% on-time departure rate for its Darwin-Melbourne route, making it the best route for air passengers in the country.

However, the best route overall having the most timely departures for any airline is from Perth to Adelaide with 96% reliability factor via Virgin. Qantas, meanwhile, had a dismal performance rate for this route with 88%.

On the opposite end of the scale, the route from Darwin to Brisbane was the worst route in the country with an average of 72% on-time departures. Qantas outperformed Virgin on this route with the former having 74% efficiency rate while the latter had 70% rate.

A spokesman from Virgin Australia clarified that passengers should look deeper into the carrier's efficiency over a long-term performance to get a clear picture.

He revealed that they have worked so hard to improve their performance regarding timely departures of all their scheduled flights over a twelve-month period and that's how their business is striving to achieve.

He further added that their goal is to keep the lead in timely departures over a long-term basis and that they believe that they are on the right track.

The spokesman further stated that their performance over the past financial year had improved and, in fact, better than its rivals. He hoped that the trend would continue over a long-term period.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer for Qantas' domestic operations, Lyell Strambi, pointed out that most of their clients, especially the frequent fliers, confessed that they choose Qantas for its dependable schedules far more often than most of its closest rivals.