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Virgin Australia has topped Qantas for on-time honours for a second straight month, latest figures show.
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) said in its monthly report on on-time performance 91.8 per cent of the combined Virgin Australia/Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) network’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule in April.
This was ahead of the Qantas/QantasLink operations at 89.4 per cent.
The combined Virgin/VARA network was also ahead of Qantas for on-time departures at 92.8 per cent, compared with Qantas/QantasLink at 89.6 per cent.
VARA was the only airline to suffer a drop in punctuality, with the other domestic carriers all improving their on-time arrivals and departures performance in April.
Among the low-cost carriers, Tigerair remains well ahead of its rival Jetstar, while in the regional sector it was Regional Express (Rex) that came out on top in April.
The battle for passengers has led to a strong emphasis on punctuality for airlines in an effort to attract and retain customers, particularly those in the lucrative corporate and government travel sector.
The top two Australian domestic routes for on-time arrivals involved Brisbane Airport – Brisbane-Proserpine (100 per cent) and Brisbane-Darwin (97.5 per cent).
Further, all 59 scheduled flights at Proserpine from Virgin and Jetstar departed and arrived on-time in April.
And Darwin was the only capital city airport to feature in the top 10 for airport punctuality in the month, achieving an on-time arrivals of 95.4 per cent.
On-time arrivals for April (figure in brackets indicates percentage point change from previous month)
Virgin 92.1% (+3.9)
Qantas 90.8% (+3.3)
Tigerair 89.6% (+8.4)
Rex 88.3% (+5.2)
QantasLink 88.0% (+2.2)
Virgin Australia Regional 84.7% (-5.6)
Jetstar 82.9% (+3.6)
Virgin network 91.8% (+3.5)
Qantas network 89.4% (+2.8)
On-time departures for April (figure in brackets indicates change from previous month)
Virgin 93.0% (+3.5)
Rex 91.4% (+4.5)
Qantas 91.3% (+2.3)
Tigerair 90.6% (+8.5)
QantasLink 88.1% (+1.7)
Virgin Australia Regional 88.2% (-2.5)
Jetstar 79.7% (+2.8)
Virgin network 92.8% (+3.3)
Qantas network 89.6% (+1.9)
(Source: BITRE)
