It seems if you want to get somewhere on time, Virgin Australia (ASX:VAH) is now your airline of choice.
Virgin has overtaken Qantas Group Ltd as Australia's most punctual airline, achieving an 81.4% on-time performance in April, surpassing Qantas' 78.4%. This marks a significant turnaround for Virgin, which was last in punctuality in December and in the early months of 2024.
Jetstar lagged behind with only 74.9% of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.
Virgin Australia (ASX:VAH)’s chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka attributed the improvement to an intense focus on performance, achieving a return to pre-COVID service levels.
“The post-COVID recovery has been challenging for the aviation industry, but it is promising to see reliability and on-time performance improve across Australian airlines," Hrdlicka said.
“We know that on any given day various factors including weather, air traffic control, unscheduled aircraft maintenance and crew resources can impact airline operations. But our ability to manage these disruptions has improved, while at the same time we have focused on simplifying our growing operation.”
Rex also demonstrated reliability, with 80.7% of flights on time, while QantasLink recorded the highest cancellation rate at 2.4%, equating to 280 services.
Qantas aims to improve results
Qantas Group cited early April storms as a factor affecting Jetstar’s performance but remained optimistic about improving results in May.
"Our people have put in a lot of hard work to improve our reliability and it’s great to see our results climbing back towards the long-term average," said Qantas Operations Centre head Daniel Dihen.
Meanwhile, Bonza, which did not report data for April, ceased operations on April 30. The budget carrier entered voluntary administration after its Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 Max 8 fleet was repossessed by lessor AIP Capital.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) expressed concerns over Bonza’s collapse, noting its impact on connectivity, particularly in regional areas, and the loss of competition that had benefited consumers with cheaper airfares.
Despite managing to capture a 2% share of the domestic market in its 15 months of operation, Bonza’s potential for further development as a competitor was a significant loss, according to the ACCC.
Major events put people back on planes
Throughout the March quarter, Qantas and Jetstar carried 61.8% of domestic travellers, Virgin Australia 31.3% and Rex 5%.
Airfares generally decreased but a surge in domestic airline revenue occurred in February due to high demand from major events, including Taylor Swift concerts and World Wrestling Entertainment in Perth. This led February to exceed pre-pandemic domestic passenger numbers for the first time on record.
Qantas and Virgin earned extra goodwill when Bonza collapsed, offering free flights to stranded passengers.
Now to bring the Aussies still trapped in New Caledonia home.