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The slowest month on record

While the non-stop mainstream media headlines about travel delays at Australian airports meant it wasn’t exactly a surprise, the latest on-time performance figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economic made for some vexing reading, nonetheless.

THE results were there in black and white, June was the worst performed month for domestic air travel since the department commenced recording data in 2003, with the airlines collectively only able to meet on-time targets 62% of the time. The report suggested the biggest factors driving the tardiness was a pastiche of weather-related events, congestion, and COVID-19 related issues such as staff shortages. For a sobering comparison, the same month last year saw the airlines able to achieve 84% of on-time services.

Trailing the field for the month was Qantas, which fell below 60% of flights arriving and departing on time, while arch-rival Rex Airlines emerged victorious in this context at least, chalking up 80% of services on schedule.

If you were a traveller enjoying an on-time flight in June, the chances are you were flying to or from Adelaide, which featured prominently in the best performed routes. Adelaide to Alice Springs was thew best of the pack with 87.2% of on-time arrivals, while Cairns to Townsville (84.2%), Brisbane to Hamilton Island (80%) and Sydney to Coffs Harbour (79.9%) also performed well.

The worst performing route was Darwin-Melbourne, where just a meagre 24.2% of flights landed on time.

Results were also poor for Qantas on cancellations, recording 8.1% of its flights cancelled, compared to 7% for QantasLink, 5.8% for Virgin Australia, 5.5% for Jetstar, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines with 5.3% and again Rex out in front with just 0.7% of flights cancelled.

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