VA Cancellations, Delays growing?

[MarkD]

Credit where credit is due, they seem to have really got their cough together lately. On time or early for last 6 flights. Clearly they are reacting and making efforts to increase reliability.

 

[antycbr]

OTP has been good. No more leniency boarding late passengers which is good. There's nothing more frustrating that having everything ready to go and waiting for someone because they can't get their timings and life right to board an aircraft.

What about pax on late running connecting services, out of interest? Are these held?

 

[twinaisle]

What about pax on late running connecting services, out of interest? Are these held?

It really would depend on factors if there are other flights and how long they are running late, of airport had curfews, what hours crew are on etc.

Same PNR then generally no problems and looked after but if it's separate then good luck.

 

[PERLHR]

OTP has been good. No more leniency boarding late passengers which is good. There's nothing more frustrating that having everything ready to go and waiting for someone because they can't get their timings and life right to board an aircraft.

Assuming ofcourse VA don't expect pax to run a sprint race when disembarking one VA flight to board another....then yes. Often I have seen mad rushes to get the connection.

 

[Harrison_133]

It's been a while since the last update so I thought I'd post the December 2024 OTP figures which were released today.

There was marked improvement in on time departures and arrivals compared to the previous month where all the airlines took a bit of a hit with OTP.

VA's cancellation rate was down to a new low of 0.6%. It also marks 11 consecutive months of VA having a lower cancellation rate than QF.

Reporting Airlines	Sectors Scheduled	Arrivals On Time %	Departures On Time %	Cancellations %
Hinterland	1,191​	87.3​	92.2​	0.9​
Jetstar	8,412​	73.3​	70.1​	1.5​
Qantas—all QF designated services	18,301​	73.7​	73.1​	2.7​
Rex Airlines	4,141​	75.9​	78.6​	2.5​
Skytrans	791​	78.9​	78.9​	2.9​
Virgin Australia—all VA designated services	12,536​	75.1​	74.4​	0.6​
All Airlines	45,372​	74.7​	74.0​	1.8​
Individual operating entities
Qantas	7,194​	72.9​	71.3​	2.6​
QantasLink	11,107​	74.3​	74.3​	2.7​
Virgin Australia	12,157​	75.3​	74.7​	0.6​
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines	379​	70.9​	64.5​	1.1​

Source: https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/BITRE_OTP_Report_December_2024_0.pdf

 

[Harrison_133]

January numbers are out:

Table 1: Total Industry On Time performance for January 2025​

Reporting Airlines	Sectors Scheduled	Arrivals On Time %	Departures on Time %	Cancellations %
Hinterland	1,332​	88.2​	93.0​	0.3​
Jetstar	9,144​	69.7​	66.8​	2.3​
Qantas—all QF designated services	17,580​	75.6​	75.6​	2.4​
Rex Airlines	3,721​	80.4​	83.4​	2.0​
Skytrans	800​	90.6​	90.6​	16.3​
Virgin Australia—all VA designated services	12,116​	76.9​	77.7​	0.9​
All Airlines	44,693​	75.8​	75.8​	2.1​
Individual operating entities
Qantas	7,133​	72.3​	71.6​	2.8​
QantasLink	10,447​	77.9​	78.3​	2.1​
Virgin Australia	11,728​	77.1​	78.0​	0.8​
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines	388​	71.6​	68.2​	2.1​

Source: Airline On Time Performance Statistics—Monthly

They also mention in their press release that the "strong performance has continued into February, with departure OTP around 80 per cent for the month to date."

Source: Virgin Australia off to a flying start in 2025 with industry leading performance

 

[Saab34]

Why is Hinterland listed? They operate a bunch of Cessna Caravans in the tropics, passenger count isn’t exactly that high.

 

[Saab34]

Bringing this thread back to life, seems like they have some issues at the moment.

Thousands of Virgin Australia passengers delayed after exhausted cabin crew reject extra shifts​

Virgin Australia has been accused of using weather as a cover for ongoing cabin crew shortages, that led to more than 40 flight cancellations over the weekend and scores of delayed services.
The disruption impacted more than 30,000 passengers, according to an internal airline report seen by The Australian, with the Melbourne-Perth and Melbourne-Sydney corridors the most affected.

Virgin Australia said 34 flights in total were cancelled on Sunday, on top of 16 that were axed on Saturday.
A further 180 services were delayed on Sunday by an average 44 minutes, with some held up by more than three hours.

Melbourne’s weather caused the upheaval on Saturday, which led to some cabin crew reaching their maximum allowable duty hours and ruling them out for Sunday flights, the airline said.
A Virgin Australia crew member who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there was no question that Sunday’s problem was a “shortage of cabin crew” rather than anything weather-related.

She said an SOS was issued to staff at about 11am on Sunday, seeking help to fill 55 holes in the roster.

“We were offered short day payments of $250, which is not really worth giving up a day off for,” said the crew member.

“Workloads have been high for a long time and crew are exhausted. Many of us no longer feel it’s worth giving up our days off, and this weekend showed what happens when we stop.”

Virgin Australia acknowledged the disruption was “frustrating for impacted guests including those looking to get home after the AFL grand final”.

“Our team is continuing to work hard to get guests to their destinations safely and as soon as possible including adding extra services,” said an airline spokeswoman.

The previous weekend, cabin crew shortages resulted in more than 30 flights being cancelled by Virgin Australia, as flight attendants refused to give up days off to cover gaps in the roster.

Cabin crew denied it was a co-ordinated action, but rather the culmination of months of working extra shifts to keep flights operating to schedule, that had led to widespread exhaustion.
The airline is in the process of negotiating a new enterprise agreement with cabin crew, who want better pay and conditions including an end to the requirement they clean aircraft in between flights.

Jetstar cabin crew are also expected to undertake a “basic tidy-up” between flights but Qantas pays professional cleaners to ensure aircraft are ready for the next service.

Virgin Australia also want their duty hours reduced to 9 hours, 45 minutes from between 10 and 12 hours, with the exception of some agreed pairings.

Such a change would mean the airline would have to find fresh crews on some routes, such as Brisbane-Darwin and Sydney-Perth, rather than use the same people on same day return flights.

Virgin Australia said it continued to negotiate in good faith with the Flight Attendants Association of Australia and the Transport Workers Union.

“Our aim is to achieve positive outcomes for our people and our business,” said a spokeswoman.

Industrial action has plagued Australian’s aviation industry in recent weeks, with another strike expected on Monday evening at Sydney Airport.

About 50 work safety officers who are responsible for closing off the tarmac and airfield and escorting vehicles in the lead up to the evening curfew, will walk off the job between 10pm and 1am.

The workers are employed by Certis which is contracted by Sydney Airport to provide security services. Last Thursday security screening staff staged two stoppages over poor job security and pay.

A Sydney Airport spokeswoman said there was no expected impact to passengers, flights or airport operations.

 

[PERLHR]

Yep pretty well documented here in the west. Many unhappy people having spend a fortune on flights only to be told of cancellations via app not long before flights were due. Others paying more money just to fly QF home. VA management hiding and they probably have a lot to answer for here. ....problem remains generally in Australia ...no consequences for flights cancelled or indeed perhaps, not even likely to run?

 

[33kft]

I may have read it wrong, but it seems to suggest they were lowballing staff on compensation to take extra shifts when they were 55 staff short? Seems like a pretty bad strategy to get people to turn up

 

[Luke B]

I may have read it wrong, but it seems to suggest they were lowballing staff on compensation to take extra shifts when they were 55 staff short? Seems like a pretty bad strategy to get people to turn up

Not sure what's in VA's EBA but for my employer we get double time for a Sunday. Staff should be incentivised to come to work, works pretty well for us (on a weekend at least).

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Seriously tho, should cabin crew have to take part in cleaning the aircraft, on arrival into an airport.
NO, but not saying VA will avoid getting cabin crew to do it, esp at fast need turn around times at airports.
Means that VA does not then have to pay for their outsourced cleaners to do a deep clean if cabin crew have to pick up dirritus or major rubbish, which the cleaners should in fact be doing.
I am a cleaner, (not in flight), and it does take time to go from row to row, to remove rubbish, but if it saves the employer/payer, then they will avoid it if they can, by getting cabin crew to don gloves and then pick up rubbish.
Some plane pax are real (YYYY), and will cause a mess with dropped tissues etc, at will.

 

[twinaisle]

Not sure what's in VA's EBA but for my employer we get double time for a Sunday. Staff should be incentivised to come to work, works pretty well for us (on a weekend at least).

VA crew don't get weekend penalties/ only some major public holiday will earn an extra $100 for turning up. "6 weeks AL" is there to "make up" for penalty/public holiday rates.

To work on off day it's 300/350 depending what category you hold. It's the same rate for a short duty or a long duty which means not many will come in for anything that takes a whole day.

 

[Saab34]

Sorry is that 300/350 in addition to an hourly rate or something? Or is that it?

 

[twinaisle]

Sorry is that 300/350 in addition to an hourly rate or something? Or is that it?

It's salary based so the above is the extra you'd get for coming in on a day off.
There's also a ~$7 per hour allowance that's taxed.