Melburnian1
Enthusiast
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- Jun 7, 2013
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While there are multiple reasons for airlines cancelling flights - weather, low bookings, aircraft becoming defective, crew going off sick and no standbys available and the SYD curfew to name a few - the cancellation rate of scheduled Melbourne - Sydney - Melbourne flights continues to be very high.
The BITRE figures for July 2017 disclose that from Melbourne to Sydney (i.e northbound) there were 103 flights of the four major domestic airlines cancelled in July 2017.
Tigerair had the highest percentage cancelled at a shocking 5.8 per cent, but that was only 16 flights in total.
Qantas saw 44 northbound flights getting the boot - 4.3 per cent of those timetabled.
Virgin Australia cancelled 31 flights, or 4 per cent of those timetabled.
Jetstar had 12 flights cancelled - 3.2 per cent cancellation rate.
Southbound it wasn't much better, with 94 July 2017 SYD - MEL flights getting the boot.
Qantas cancelled 35 flights (3.4 per cent of listed flights), Virgin Australia 32 (4.2 per cent), Tigerair again 16 - 5.8 per cent and Jetstar 11 - 2.9 per cent.
Compare this to a typical high speed rail route covering similar distances overseas where often cancellations would be very rare, despite some nations having climatic conditions far more extreme than typical Australian east coast winters. Thus far, our politicians have refused to build high speed rail between MEL - SYD - OOL - BNE despite continuing evidence of highly variable, and often unsatisfactory, airline punctuality and cancellations performance.
For surface transport in Australia, two per cent is a fairly standard figure below which cancellations are expected to come in at each month.
These flight cancellations may not be hugely annoying if they are at peak times when, say QF offers a 15 minute frequency on the SYD - MEL route (provided one can be rebooked on the next flight) but when it or the other airlines only have flights at scheduled intervals from half an hour to one every couple of hours, it can be a major inconvenience to business and even some leisure travellers. Meetings have to be rescheduled or in the worst cases air or surface connections are missed.
While politicians luxuriate in the Chairman's Lounge or The Club, lesser mortals lack access to a proper compensation scheme for delayed flights or cancellations, whether it is domestic flights, or international flights ex Australia.
The BITRE figures for July 2017 disclose that from Melbourne to Sydney (i.e northbound) there were 103 flights of the four major domestic airlines cancelled in July 2017.
Tigerair had the highest percentage cancelled at a shocking 5.8 per cent, but that was only 16 flights in total.
Qantas saw 44 northbound flights getting the boot - 4.3 per cent of those timetabled.
Virgin Australia cancelled 31 flights, or 4 per cent of those timetabled.
Jetstar had 12 flights cancelled - 3.2 per cent cancellation rate.
Southbound it wasn't much better, with 94 July 2017 SYD - MEL flights getting the boot.
Qantas cancelled 35 flights (3.4 per cent of listed flights), Virgin Australia 32 (4.2 per cent), Tigerair again 16 - 5.8 per cent and Jetstar 11 - 2.9 per cent.
Compare this to a typical high speed rail route covering similar distances overseas where often cancellations would be very rare, despite some nations having climatic conditions far more extreme than typical Australian east coast winters. Thus far, our politicians have refused to build high speed rail between MEL - SYD - OOL - BNE despite continuing evidence of highly variable, and often unsatisfactory, airline punctuality and cancellations performance.
For surface transport in Australia, two per cent is a fairly standard figure below which cancellations are expected to come in at each month.
These flight cancellations may not be hugely annoying if they are at peak times when, say QF offers a 15 minute frequency on the SYD - MEL route (provided one can be rebooked on the next flight) but when it or the other airlines only have flights at scheduled intervals from half an hour to one every couple of hours, it can be a major inconvenience to business and even some leisure travellers. Meetings have to be rescheduled or in the worst cases air or surface connections are missed.
While politicians luxuriate in the Chairman's Lounge or The Club, lesser mortals lack access to a proper compensation scheme for delayed flights or cancellations, whether it is domestic flights, or international flights ex Australia.
