And the award for most on-time airline goes to…

Young businessman with a briefcase and glasses running in a city street on a background of red brick wall
By Hannah Edensor


Yesterday, we announced the latest ranking of America’s best airlines based on fees, comfort, service and network, and today, Australia has its own airline rankings.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) has unveiled which domestic airlines nailed on-time performance in 2016, and which were lagging.

Virgin Australia was crowned king when it came to highest on-time arrivals (86.7 per cent) compared to other major rival carriers Qantas, who was pipped by just 0.3 per cent, with an on-time score of 86.4 per cent.

Virgin’s budget baby Tigerair came in third with 81.6 per cent, while Qantas’ Jetstar lagged in fourth with 76.2 per cent on arrival time.

QantasLink was the best performing regional airline, however, with 85 per cent of its arrivals on schedule, followed by Regional Express at 84.4 per cent and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 84.3 per cent.

And if you’re judging by the overall domestic score, Virgin still takes the cake.

The Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 85.7 per cent for on time arrivals while the Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 86.6 per cent.

Virgin Australia also achieved the highest level of on time departures for 2016 at 88.4 per cent, followed by Qantas at 88 per cent, Tigerair Australia at 83.1 per cent and Jetstar at 73.3 per cent.

The regional airlines were led by Regional Express at 87.5 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 86.8 per cent and QantasLink at 85.7 per cent. The Qantas network recorded 86.8 per cent for on time departures while the Virgin Australia network recorded 88.3 per cent.

When we’re looking at which naughty airlines were highest offenders of cancellations, QantasLink took home gold, with 2.5 per cent of its flights cancelled in 2016, while Jetstar and Virgin Australia ranked 1.9 per cent.

Virgin Australia Regional Airlines recorded 1.3 per cent of its flights as cancelled, Qantas had 1.2 per cent, and Tigerair Australia, in a shocking twist, came in with less than one per cent of flights cancelled.

If you’re looking to avoid a cancelled flight, too, the BITRE reported the Brisbane‑Moranbah and Moranbah-Brisbane routes as the worst offenders with 6.2 per cent.

Meanwhile those who aren’t flexible to change should avoid the Sydney to Canberra leg altogether, with Canberra-Sydney cancelled at a rate of 4.8 per cent in 2016, and the return route reporting 4.4 per cent.

 

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