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Summary – 2023 Calendar Year

For the year ended December 2023, on time performance (OTP) over all routes operated by participating airlines (Bonza, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex Airlines, Skytrans, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 70.6 per cent for on time arrivals and 71.0 per cent for on time departures. The cancellation rate for the year was 3.7 per cent. The equivalent figures for 2022 were 68.8 per cent for on time arrivals, 68.2 per cent for on time departures and 4.7 per cent for cancellations. Airlines’ on time performance varies across the routes they serve. Individual route data by specific airline for 63 routes are shown on pages 9-22.

The 2023 on time arrivals figure was lower than the long-term average performance for all routes (81.1 per cent) and the on time departures figure was also lower than the long-term average (82.2 per cent). The rate of cancellations was higher than the long-term average of 2.2 per cent.

The Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 74.0 per cent for on time arrivals while the Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 66.2 per cent. Qantas achieved the highest on time arrivals among the major domestic airlines at 70.5 per cent followed by Virgin Australia at 66.2 per cent and Jetstar at 65.8 per cent. Of the regional airlines, Qantaslink recorded 76.3 per cent on time arrivals, followed by Skytrans with 73.8 per cent for on time arrivals, Rex Airlines at 73.6 per cent, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 66.4 per cent and Bonza at 64.2 per cent. 

The Qantas network recorded 74.1 per cent for on time departures while the Virgin Australia network recorded 67.1 per cent. Qantas achieved the highest level of on time departures among the major domestic airlines for 2023 at 70.7 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia at 67.2 per cent and Jetstar at 64.1 per cent. Of the regional airlines, QantasLink recorded 76.4 per cent for on time departures, followed by Rex Airlines at 76.3 per cent, Skytrans at 73.1 per cent, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 64.2 per cent and Bonza at 62.6 per cent. 

Bonza recorded the highest percentage of cancellations (12.7 per cent) during the year, although data were only collected from Bonza for the last two months of the year. The second highest cancellation rate was from Skytrans at 5.4 per cent (data only collected from May 2023), followed by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (5.2 per cent), Jetstar (5.1 per cent), Virgin Australia (4.2 per cent), Qantaslink (3.6 per cent), Qantas (3.4 per cent) and Rex Airlines (1.9 per cent).

Of the 63 routes which met the criteria for OTP reporting, the Townsville-Cairns route had the highest percentage of on time arrivals (87.6 per cent) and the Cairns-Townsville route had the highest percentage of on time departures (87.8 per cent). The Hamilton Island-Sydney route had the lowest percentage of on time arrivals (51.8 per cent) and the Launceston-Brisbane route had the lowest percentage of on time departures (46.9 per cent). 

Cancellations were highest on the Melbourne-Sydney route at 9.0 per cent, followed by the Sydney-Melbourne route at 8.8 per cent, the Canberra-Sydney route at 8.2 per cent, the Sydney-Canberra route at 7.6 per cent and the Armidale-Sydney route at 6.4 per cent. 

Of the airports with OTP reporting for 2023, Mt Isa Airport recorded the highest percentage of on time arrivals (85.9 per cent) and Port Lincoln recorded highest percentage of on time departures (84.1 per cent). Launceston Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on time arrivals (64.0 per cent) and Hamilton Island Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on time departures (58.5 per cent). These figures only refer to reported routes and do not cover all flights at these airports.
 

Figure 1. Total Industry Arrivals and Departures On Time by month from December 2018

Figure 2. Total Industry Cancellations by month from December 2018