Qantas has recorded its best April on-time performance in almost a decade, with more than 85 per cent of flights departing and arriving on time.
Flying Kangaroo recorded 85.8 per cent on-time arrivals and departures in April across all QF domestic services, according to the latest BITRE data, with 2.2 per cent of flights cancelled. It comes as the airline was last month named by OAG as the world’s second most punctual airline.
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“We know what reliability means to customers and thanks to the dedication of our team, Qantas achieved its best April on-time performance in nine years,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“Nearly 86 per cent of Qantas and QantasLink flights left on time in April, despite the challenging weather and busy school holiday and holiday period.
“We continue to strive to further improve our reliability, including through new technology that helps our frontline teams better predict and manage outages for customers.”
Virgin Australia recorded 83.4 per cent on-time arrivals and departures, as well as 0.8 per cent cancellations, and the general manager of its Integrated Operations Centre, Danny Norman, said the airline has had the highest completion rates among major airlines over the past seven months.
“We understand that a delay can be frustrating, but a cancellation can disrupt an entire trip, so our priority is to keep guests moving safely and, where possible, operate the flight as scheduled so that they arrive at their destination on the planned travel day,” he said.
“Completions are one of the clearest measures of reliability for travelers because they show whether a scheduled flight is actually operating. While on-time performance remains important, our approach does not focus on on-time performance in isolation.
“This month’s results exceeded the long-term average of all major Australian airlines and reflect our team’s continued focus on delivering a safe, stable and reliable operation.”
Across all participating airlines (Hinterland, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex Airlines, Skytrans Australia, Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines), on-time arrivals averaged 82.9 per cent and on-time departures 82.6 per cent, with 1.9 per cent of flights cancelled; This was better than the long-term averages on all three measures and an improvement in April 2025.
On-time arrivals (percentage)
- All airlines: 82.9
- Qantas and QantasLink – 85.8
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 83.4
- Indoor – 92.1
- Qantas Link – 86.4
- Qantas – 84.7
- Virgin Australia – 83.5
- Long-term average: 80.5
- Jetstar – 78.3
- King – 74.6
- Skytrans – 73.1
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 71.2
On-time departures (percentage)
- All airlines: 82.6
- Qantas and QantasLink – 85.8
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 83.4
- Indoor: 95.7
- Qantas – 87.0
- Qantas Link – 85.2
- Virgin Australia – 83.6
- Long-term average – 81.6
- Skytrans – 78.6
- King – 76.7
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 69.9
- Jetstar – 75.0
Cancellations (percentage)
- All airlines – 1.9
- Qantas and QantasLink – 2.2
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 0.8
- King – 3.8
- Qantas Link – 2.4
- Skytrans – 2.2
- Long term average – 2.2
- Jetstar – 2.0
- Qantas – 1.9
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 1.4
- Virgin Australia – 0.8
- Inside – 0.6
