Which is Australia's most on-time airline?

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Which is Australia's most on-time airline? | RAC WA » About » RAC eNews » March 09 » Which is Australia's most on-time airline?

The overall punctuality of airlines on Australian routes has declined in the past two years according to a report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE).

Eight airlines flying 49 different Australian routes were covered in the report including Virgin Blue, Qantas, Tiger Airways and Jetstar Airlines.

Nothing new here, really. Good to see that it includes all airlines though.

 

[bambbbam2]

Shouldn't that be 'whom' or 'who' is Australia's on-time airline?

 

[possumoz]

Here's an article from this mornings Courier Mail

Thousands of flights delayed by strikes, bad weather | The Courier-Mail

The difference bewteen QF and DJ is an eye opener for a grumpy old WP like me

 

[crazydave98]

Here's an article from this mornings Courier Mail

Thousands of flights delayed by strikes, bad weather | The Courier-Mail

The difference bewteen QF and DJ is an eye opener for a grumpy old WP like me

The article was about a single month. Maybe you're grumpy because Qantas has had worse OTP and more cancellations than Virgin Blue for over 4 years?

 

[simongr]

Shouldn't that be 'whom' or 'who' is Australia's on-time airline?

I believe the correct word would be who rather than whom as the Airline is the subject - I think.

 

[JohnK]

Good to see there is not a lot of difference between the 8 airlines mentioned. It is strange to see Tiger on top of the list though considering the amount of flights they have cancelled or rescheduled it would not be hard to have a better on time performance. I know it is not easy but I do wish the airlines would make a greater effort on improving their on time performance and use realistic excuses.

A few strange announcements by the captain last week on an already very delayed SYD-BNE flight due to late arrival of the aircraft. After most people had boarded the captain announced there would be a 30 minute delay as 1 of the passengers was feeling ill and they would not board the flight and their luggage had to be off-loaded. A few minutes later I notice 2 passengers walking past me down the back and I noticed earlier they were sitting outside as I was boarding.

Soon after another announcement by the captain of good news that the passengers have boarded but we cannot take-off as we are waiting for the final paperwork and we will still be delayed another 20 minutes. Then good news we have the paperwork but we have lost our slot and a couple of aircraft have pushed back behind us so we need to wait some more. Are they making up excuses or do these excuses sound genuine?

Finally pushed back and had a long taxi and longish flight time and got into BNE ~65 minutes late. Do other people have this happen to them regularly? I know I am junxed but I did not think I was jinxed this much. I eagerly await to see what will delay tonights flight....

 

[oz_mark]

Finally pushed back and had a long taxi and longish flight time and got into BNE ~65 minutes late. Do other people have this happen to them regularly? I know I am junxed but I did not think I was jinxed this much. I eagerly await to see what will delay tonights flight....

Certainly had a few cases where there was string of reasons for the ever increasing delay. In the end the captain just said he was no longer going to announce how much longer the delay was going to be as he had got it wrong a few times!

 

[comint]

It is strange to see Tiger on top of the list...

Not to me, that is exactly where I would expect them to be (now that they have sufficient Oz experience under their belt). And with ZERO cancellations!

I imagine their (current size &) business model would call for that kind precision flying.

 

[crazydave98]

Good to see there is not a lot of difference between the 8 airlines mentioned. It is strange to see Tiger on top of the list though considering the amount of flights they have cancelled or rescheduled it would not be hard to have a better on time performance. I know it is not easy but I do wish the airlines would make a greater effort on improving their on time performance and use realistic excuses.

Tiger doesn't operate to SYD which is by far the worst airport in the country - other than insufficient landing slots (artificially capped by politicians), insufficient gates (Maquarie underinvesting in its little monopoly to boost returns) it it also worst affected by weather in that when it goes to single runway capacity is halved and so everything turns to $#!T and SYD is particularly prone to thunderstorms which close the whole airport. Oh and did I mention the "go-slow" by air traffic controllers trying to get a pay rise out of AirServices? 25% of all our flights and probably the same for QF go through SYD, which then knock-on to the rest of the system as per the next part of your post. If TT operated to SYD it would lose 5 points of OTP overnight. Note also that JQ is a lot less exposed to SYD than either QF or DJ.

A few strange announcements by the captain last week on an already very delayed SYD-BNE flight due to late arrival of the aircraft. After most people had boarded the captain announced there would be a 30 minute delay as 1 of the passengers was feeling ill and they would not board the flight and their luggage had to be off-loaded. A few minutes later I notice 2 passengers walking past me down the back and I noticed earlier they were sitting outside as I was boarding.

Soon after another announcement by the captain of good news that the passengers have boarded but we cannot take-off as we are waiting for the final paperwork and we will still be delayed another 20 minutes. Then good news we have the paperwork but we have lost our slot and a couple of aircraft have pushed back behind us so we need to wait some more. Are they making up excuses or do these excuses sound genuine?

I assure you they sound very genuine to anyone involved in airline operations (and I'm assuming you travelled on our competitor) as per notes above. Pilots are not paid to be imaginative with excuses and there is no incentive for them to tell porkies. They also are not privy to everything that is going on at the time in their airlines' ops area or at Airservices Australia.

 

[JohnK]

25% of all our flights and probably the same for QF go through SYD, which then knock-on to the rest of the system as per the next part of your post. If TT operated to SYD it would lose 5 points of OTP overnight.

So if SYD did not exist the airlines would have close to 100% on time performamce?

Note also that JQ is a lot less exposed to SYD than either QF or DJ.

It does not say much for their on time performance then....

 

[crazydave98]

So if SYD did not exist the airlines would have close to 100% on time performamce?

It would certainly be in the order of 5-10 percentage points better than it is (I am sure I saw Brett Godfrey quoted on that figure within the past few weeks). We (and every other airline) would still have weather, passengers and aircraft to deal with

Here's my recipe for 100% on time performance:
1. buy a new aircraft for every flight.
2. board passengers about 3 hours before scheduled departure to allow for weather and unloading baggage of FTBs (Fail To Board).
3. start up aircraft and engines about 2 hours before departure in case there is a technical issue - this allows time for change of aircraft if need be.
4. push back an hour before scheduled time and take off
5. hold overhead destination airport until clear to land - hopefully there should not be more than an hour's delay due to weather or air traffic control
6. fly anywhere except Sydney.

 

[JohnK]

LOL. That is a pretty good answer Dave.

Given the fact I live in Sydney, and wouldn't swap for any other city in Australia and working in Brisbane does not count, and with my luck I should just be happy that I am only 1 hour late most times as there is no quick fix in the foreseeable future....

 

[NM]

7. Adjust schedules for a 4-hour flight MEL-SYD.

 

[oz_mark]

LOL. That is a pretty good answer Dave.

Given the fact I live in Sydney, and wouldn't swap for any other city in Australia and working in Brisbane does not count, and with my luck I should just be happy that I am only 1 hour late most times as there is no quick fix in the foreseeable future....

You would think though, with utilisation being reduced and having operational spares, it may be easier to swap aircraft than it has been should one go tech. Doesn't help with all issues though

 

[crazydave98]

You would think though, with utilisation being reduced and having operational spares, it may be easier to swap aircraft than it has been should one go tech.

Correct. In fact we are not "parking" 5 aircraft as has been reported. All aircraft will continue to fly but at reduced utilisation and as you suggest will be used as operational spares. As well as helping with swaps for technical reasons, it can also help mitigate weather-related and other system delays - instead of having to wait for a late inbound aircraft another can be dispatched in its place for the next sector (if the "spare" is in the right place at the right time).

 

[NM]

Correct. In fact we are not "parking" 5 aircraft as has been reported. All aircraft will continue to fly but at reduced utilisation and as you suggest will be used as operational spares. As well as helping with swaps for technical reasons, it can also help mitigate weather-related and other system delays - instead of having to wait for a late inbound aircraft another can be dispatched in its place for the next sector (if the "spare" is in the right place at the right time).

A major benefit of a fleet of similar aircraft type/configs.