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Domestic aviation looks to be making a second attempt at lifting domestic passenger numbers back to pre-pandemic levels over Christmas despite huge delays at the last try earlier this year.
Brisbane Airport has revealed the busiest times at its domestic terminal will likely be at 100% of 2019 passengers during the holidays, with other major airports almost certain to make similar predictions.
It comes after the ACCC revealed in September how spooked airlines significantly reduced capacity to mitigate the delays and cancellations caused by staff shortages and sickness. However, the news also follows a significant uptick in performance among both airlines and airports, suggesting they could now handle increased workloads.
On Tuesday, Brisbane said it expects 55,000 people to pass through its domestic terminal on peak travel days, alongside 14,000 international passengers.
Until now, the busiest day at the airport since 2019 was in September this year, with 12,300 international travellers.
In June, the domestic industry peaked at 97 per cent pre-pandemic numbers, but it came alongside all-time records for delays being broken that month and in April and July.
Since then, the industry has recruited thousands of extra staff and cut flights to improve the passenger experience.
Qantas alone said it would invest $200 million for the remainder of the financial year to roster additional crew, train new recruits and pay for overtime in contact centres.
It said its new “conservative” approach to scheduling meant 20 per cent of its available seats would be left in reserve.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said, “It’s clear that maintaining our pre-COVID service levels requires a lot more operational buffer than it used to, especially when you consider the sick leave spikes and supply chain delays that the whole industry is dealing with.
“That means having more crew and more aircraft on standby and adjusting our flying schedule to help make that possible, until we’re confident that extra support is no longer needed.”
That decision appeared to pay off in October when the Flying Kangaroo completed a remarkable turnaround to shift from being the worst airline in the country for cancellations to being the best.
Brisbane Airport itself reported enjoying a “very smooth period” during the state’s recent school holidays, with the maximum wait time to pass through security peaking at only 20 minutes.
The organisation’s estimates backed up an independent analysis by Australian Aviation that showed it and Melbourne were coping well with the increase in numbers.
Overall delays and cancellations numbers are also nudging back to 2019 levels, with on-time arrivals at 69.3 per cent and on-time departures at 68.5 per cent.
Dan Hinter
says:“Brisbane Airport itself reported enjoying a “very smooth period” during the state’s recent school holidays, with the maximum wait time to pass through security peaking at only 20 minutes.”
Really !!!! 20 minutes, I am not sure which line this mental giant was at but the lines I witnessed were a lot longer than that. BACL has done nothing to address the security wait times with the antiquated check system still in use. Wake up BACL, open your eyes, spend some money and upgrade…. take a look at how Melbourne does it.