Passengers left waiting for jets

A report in the Gold Coast News says that while Australians may be paying less for air travel, the major domestic carriers are getting less punctual, including flights to and from the Gold Coast.

New figures released by the Federal Government show that the top three airlines, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin, are late on departure or arrival on at least one in five flights and on some routes that figure is as high as 50 per cent.

Every month, passengers on hundreds of extra flights in Australia are now being delayed by at least 15 minutes.

New domestic carrier, Tiger Airways, which has had a chequered start after a series of late cancellations last month, has not yet indicated whether it will participate in the voluntary provision of its departure and arrival times.

The November figures compiled by the Federal Transport Department show a decline in airline punctuality of about 10 per cent in the past 12 months.

The average performance on all routes, including on-time departures since 2003, was 86.7 per cent but that figure last November had dropped to 79.9 per cent.

The average on-time arrivals stood at 85.6 per cent and this had declined to 77.4 per cent last November.

According to the figures, cancellations stood at a record 1.4 per cent, up from 0.9 per cent, the industry average.

On the country’s busiest route, Sydney-Melbourne, 4 per cent of all flights were cancelled.

On-time performance reporting was provided for 46 routes, covering 28 airports, including flights to and from Gold Coast-Adelaide, Gold Coast-Sydney and Gold Coast-Melbourne.

The figures show that from Adelaide to the Gold Coast, Virgin Blue flights arrived 15 minutes late 43.3 per cent of the time.

On the Gold Coast to Adelaide leg, of the 30 flights conducted in November last year, just 11 of these departed on time while half of them arrived more than 15 minutes late.

On the Gold Coast-Melbourne leg, Jetstar departed on time 58.9 per cent of the time, with four in 10 of its 163 scheduled flights arriving more than 15 minutes late.

On the Gold Coast-Sydney leg, Jetstar and Qantas departures were on time between 85 per cent and 88 per cent of the time, but Virgin departed late a third of the time.

On the Melbourne-Gold Coast route, Jetstar and Virgin were both late in departing about 25 per cent of the time, while they arrived more than 15 minutes late about a third of the time.

On the busiest route into Gold Coast Airport, the Sydney-Gold Coast leg, there were 656 flights in November.

The figures showed Jetstar and Qantas departed on time 85 per cent of the time, while Virgin Blue was down to 68 per cent.

Arrivals were similar with Jetstar and Qantas arriving not less than 15 minutes late about 85 per cent of the time, while Virgin was down to 69.4 per cent.

Gold Coast Airport handled 439 Jetstar flights during November, with 75 per cent departing on time and 78 per cent arriving at their destination on time.

According to the Transport department figures, Virgin Blue had 589 flights out of Coolangatta in the same period with 65.9 per cent departing on time and 67.7 per cent arriving on time.

Qantas had 60 flights, with 53 departing on time and 52 arriving on time.

A Report by The Moel from the Gold Coast News