Airline on-time performance statistics—monthly summary

• Airline on-time performance—monthly reports and time series data
• Airline on-time performance—annual reports (financial and calendar years)

Summary—September 2026

For September 2026, on-time performance over all routes operated by participating airlines (Hinterland, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex Airlines, Skytrans Australia, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 78.7% for on-time arrivals and 79.0% for on-time departures. The cancellation rate for the month was 1.3%. The equivalent figures for September 2025 were 78.9% for on-time arrivals, 79.9% for on-time departures and 2.0% for cancellations.

This month’s on-time arrivals figure was lower than the long-term average (average over the period of OTP reporting starting in November 2003) performance for all routes (80.5%) and the on-time departures figure was also lower than the long-term average (81.6%). The rate of cancellations was lower than the long-term average of 2.2%.

On-time arrivals

The Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 82.5% for on-time arrivals while the Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 74.2%. Hinterland achieved the highest on-time arrivals at 95.2%, followed by QantasLink at 83.5%, Qantas at 80.7%, Rex Airlines at 77.7%, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 76.9%, Virgin Australia at 74.2%, Jetstar at 73.8% and Skytrans at 69.6%.

On-time departures

The Qantas network recorded 83.2% for on-time departures while the Virgin Australia network recorded 74.3%. Hinterland achieved the highest level of on-time departures for September 2026 at 97.2%, followed by Qantas at 84.5%, QantasLink at 82.4%, Rex Airlines at 81.0%, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 80.2%, Virgin Australia at 74.2%, Jetstar at 71.4% and Skytrans Australia at 70.2%

Cancellations

Skytrans Australia recorded the highest percentage of cancellations at 3.3% during the month. The second highest cancellation rate was from QantasLink at 1.7%, Virgin Australia at 1.6%, Rex Airlines at 1.1%, Jetstar at 0.8%, Qantas at 0.7%, and Hinterland and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines both at 0.0%.

Routes

Airlines’ on-time performance varies across the routes they serve. Individual route data by specific airline for 59 routes (118 sectors when counting both directions of flights) are shown on pages 10-21 of the monthly report.

Of the 59 routes which met the criteria for on-time performance reporting in September 2026, the Brisbane-Mount Isa sector had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (97.1%) and the highest percentage of on-time departures (95.7%). The Hamilton Island-Sydney sector had the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (51.7%) and the lowest percentage of on-time departures (50.0%). 

Cancellations were highest on the Canberra-Sydney and Port Lincoln-Adelaide sectors at 4.0%, followed by the Sydney-Canberra sector 3.7%, the Adelaide-Port Lincoln sector at 3.6%, the Ayers Rock-Melbourne, Kalgoorlie-Perth and Port Macquarie-Sydney sectors at 3.2%, the Orange-Sydney sector at 3.1%, the Adelaide-Sydney sector at 2.9% and the Melbourne-Sydney sector at 2.7%.

For the month of September 2026 30 out of the 118 route sectors (from the 59 routes) had zero cancellations: Adelaide-Alice Springs, Adelaide-Gold Coast, Adelaide-Perth, Alice Springs-Adelaide, Brisbane-Darwin, Brisbane-Emerald, Brisbane-Gladstone, Brisbane-Hamilton Island, Brisbane-Hobart, Brisbane-Launceston, Brisbane-Mount Isa, Brisbane-Newcastle, Brisbane-Proserpine, Canberra-Gold Coast, Emerald-Brisbane, Gold Coast-Adelaide, Gold Coast-Canberra, Hamilton Island-Sydney, Hobart-Brisbane, Launceston-Brisbane, Mount Isa-Brisbane, Newcastle-Brisbane, Perth-Adelaide, Perth-Darwin, Perth-Newman, Proserpine-Brisbane, Sydney-Ballina, Sydney-Hamilton Island, Sydney-Launceston and Melbourne-Ayers Rock. 

Airports

Mount Isa Airport recorded the highest percentage of on-time arrivals (97.1%) while Emerald Airport had the highest percentage of on-time departures (94.2%). Launceston Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals (69.4%) while Hamilton Island Airport had the lowest percentage of on-time departures (55.5%). These figures only refer to reported routes and do not cover all flights at these airports.

Table 1: Total industry on-time performance for September 2026

Figure 1: Total industry on-time performance by month from September 2023