Passengers travelling to and from Canberra were better off flying Jetstar to avoid flight cancellations in September, new flight performance data shows.
It appears improvements from Qantas on its notoriously unreliable Canberra to Sydney route have vanished, with the airline topping the charts for cancelled flights.
Budget airline Jetstar, a subsidiary of Qantas, cancelled none of its 152 flights in and out of Canberra Airport in September. Despite no cancellations, Jetstar's on-time performance was patchy, with about 80 per cent of flights departing on time.
The latest data from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warns fewer airlines have left travellers paying higher prices.
The ACCC's latest report shows the Canberra to Sydney route had the worst cancellation rate in the country, with airlines scrapping 7 per cent of flights in September. It was slightly worse than the 6 per cent cancellation rate in August and about on par with the rate from July.
Cancellations on this route were well beyond the national industry average of 2 per cent.
Worst airlines for cancellations
Qantas and QantasLink had the worst rate of cancellations in and out of Canberra during September.
The worst performance was on QantasLink's Canberra to Sydney route, on which it cancelled 31 of its 338 scheduled flights, giving it a 9.2 per cent cancellation rate. Its Sydney to Canberra route was next with a 7.4 per cent cancellation rate.
Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron has previously criticised Qantas for its consistently poor performance on the key route. When cancellations were at their worst, Mr Byron wrote to Qantas calling the airline's treatment of passengers a "national disgrace".
Things appeared to be improving in April this year, when Qantas dramatically improved its reliability on the Canberra to Sydney service, with a 1.6 per cent cancellation rate.
But the September data shows of the 802 flights Qantas and QantasLink operated between Canberra and Sydney in September, 58 were cancelled (7.2 per cent).
QantasLink's Melbourne to Canberra and Brisbane to Canberra routes (and their return routes) all had cancellation rates above 5 per cent.
Virgin Australia's Canberra to Sydney route, and the return route, were also poor performers, both with a 5.3 per cent cancellation rate.
The best-performing routes, with no cancellations from any airline, were Adelaide to Canberra, Canberra to Gold Coast and Gold Coast to Canberra.
Best performing routes
Virgin's Canberra to Adelaide route was among the best performers of the month, with no cancellations and no delayed departures. Despite no delays departing, two of the 16 flights arrived late.
Jetstar's Brisbane to Canberra route was also a high performer, with no cancellations and only 3 of the 30 flights reporting a delayed arrival.
In its recent report on airline performance and competition, ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey called on all airlines to do better.
"On-time performance has a direct impact on consumers' travel plans and so we expect the airlines to continually work to improve this figure," she said.
