Virgin Australia completed more than 99 per cent of flights last month and its regional arm again did not cancel any flights.
Australia’s second largest airline group canceled just 0.8 per cent of flights in December 2025 according to new data from BITRE, compared to 2.4 per cent for Qantas red tail services and 1.9 per cent for Jetstar flights. In total, 1.9 percent of all flights were canceled during the month.
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The figures came after a turbulent December for the industry as a whole, including air traffic control shortages at Sydney Airport and storms along the east coast.
Across all participating airlines, 73.8 percent of flights arrived on time and 74.5 percent departed on time, below the long-term averages of 80.5 percent and 81.6 percent respectively, although cancellations exceeded the long-term average of 2.2 percent.
According to Virgin Australia Integrated Operations Center CEO Danny Norman, the result capped a “record year” of more than 22 million passenger movements with an average completion rate of 98.3 per cent on scheduled domestic flights.
“This strong performance came during Virgin Australia’s busiest December on record and our busiest year overall,” he said.
“We also improved our punctuality on scheduled domestic flight departures in December compared to the previous month and remain focused on continuing to raise it further.
“These results are due to the dedication of our incredible team, who works tirelessly to get our guests where they need to go safely and on time.”
Qantas and QantasLink continued to lead Virgin Australia and VARA in on-time performance, with 76.2 per cent on-time arrivals and 77.3 per cent on-time departures compared to Virgin’s 73.4 per cent and 74.3 per cent respectively.
Flying Kangaroo says it has been the most punctual domestic airline in Australia for the past seven consecutive months and has continued initiatives to improve reliability.
“A lot of effort has been made behind the scenes to ensure more flights leave on time and customers now see the difference when they fly with us,” a spokesperson said.
“We helped tens of thousands more customers arrive on time in December compared to last year, making a real difference during one of our busiest travel periods.”
On-time arrivals (percentage)
- All airlines: 73.8
- Qantas and QantasLink – 76.2
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 73.4
- Indoor: 85.3
- QantasLink – 76.8
- Qantas – 75.2
- Virgin Australia – 73.5
- King – 72.4
- SmartLynx Australia (formerly Skytrans) – 69.0
- Jetstar – 68.3
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 58.0
On-time departures (percentage)
- All airlines: 74.5
- Qantas and QantasLink – 77.3
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 74.3
- Indoor: 89.8
- Qantas – 78.5
- QantasLink – 76.6
- King – 75.6
- Virgin Australia – 74.5
- SmartLynx Australia (formerly Skytrans) – 69.0
- Jetstar – 66.2
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 57.3
Cancellations (percentage)
- All airlines – 1.9
- Qantas and QantasLink – 2.4
- Virgin Australia and VARA – 0.8
- Qantas Link – 3.0
- King – 2.3
- Jetstar – 1.9
- SmartLynx Australia (formerly Skytrans) – 1.8
- Indoor – 1.7
- Qantas – 1.4
- Virgin Australia – 0.9
- Virgin Australia Regional Airlines – 0.0
