Qantas hits depressing new low as the ‘least reliable’ domestic airline in Australia – ranking even worse than its budget airline Jetstar

Qantas has been rated Australia’s least reliable domestic airline in a damning new study.

The data comes from the October on-time performance report from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), which showed the airline had underperformed Virgin and regional carrier Rex this month.

It also scored lower than its budget sister company Jetstar.

BITRE found that Qantas had canceled 4.3 percent of its flights in the past month, more than Jetstar and Virgin Australia on 4.1 percent, while Rex had canceled just 2.3 percent of flights.

When flights were not canceled, about two-thirds of Qantas planes arrived or departed within 15 minutes of the expected time – well behind the other major and national airlines.

The investigation follows a series of PR disasters for the airline in the wake of the Covid pandemic, including scathing criticism of its flight credit program and the High Court upholding a ruling that it had illegally dismissed 1,700 workers.

While the national carrier’s standards fell short of expectations, national carrier QantasLink was the best performing airline in terms of on-time departures and arrivals on more than 70 percent of its flights.

The BITRE report noted that the flight cancellation rate is much higher than the long-term average of 2.2 percent.

Flights also arrived and departed ‘significantly’ less on time than the long-term average of 81.2 percent for arrivals and 82.3 percent for departures.

Qantas said in a statement that its operations in October were badly affected by staff shortages and bad weather, having gone only six days without being affected by heavy winds or storms.

A further 42 flights were canceled during the month after pilots from Network Aviation, a subsidiary of Qantas in Western Australia, walked off the job on October 4.

The strike, called by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, canceled about half of Qantas’ regional flights and affected about 3,500 customers.

BITRE found that Qantas had canceled 4.3 percent of its flights in the past month, more than Jetstar and Virgin Australia on 4.1 percent, while Rex had canceled just 2.3 percent of flights

Qantas scored lower than its budget sister company Jetstar

“We know how important it is for our customers to get out on time and we want to ensure we deliver the experience our customers expect,” Qantas told Ny Breaking Australia.

The BITRE report is yet another blow to the controversial airline.

Qantas was found to have illegally outsourced 1,683 ground crew jobs in 2020, in a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.

In August, Alan Joyce, the recently departed CEO of Qantas, was questioned at a Senate hearing where it was found that the airline owed customers $370 million in flight credits and planned to cancel them in October. Qantas later moved the closing date to the end of this year.

In September, Mr. Joyce, who oversaw the numerous scandals plaguing the airline, left the company with a golden handshake estimated to have been worth about $24 million.