Australian airlines Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia are lagging behind comparable national airlines in the latest on-time rankings.
Analysis from aviation analytics company Cirium has found that Qantas landed 73.8 per cent of flights on time in 2024.
Jetstar flights arrived at their scheduled time 73.39 per cent of the time, while Virgin Australia’s on-time performance was lower at 72.7 per cent, placing both airlines behind Qantas in the rankings.
Compared to other airlines in the Asia Pacific this places Qantas in 10th place in terms of on-time rankings. Air New Zealand was 3.5 points ahead of Qantas, which is ranked fourth.
Cirium’s On-time Performance Review 2024 reports that Mexican airline Aeromexico was the most prompt airline in the world, with flights arriving within 15 minutes (which is considered on time) of their scheduled time 86.7 per cent of the time.
The Japanese national carrier, JAL, and competitor ANA took out the first and second spots in the Asia Pacific. In the Asia Pacific region, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Thai AirAsia, Vietnam Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Cathay Pacific all polled ahead of Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin.
The Cirium data showed Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin are far more punctual on international flights than domestic services.
Virgin had fewer cancelled flights (in percentage terms) than Qantas in 11 of 12 months in 2024. Virgin also improved its on-time performance for domestic flights by more than six points to 73.9 per cent.
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