Qantas’s operational performance has continued to improve towards pre-COVID levels, with flight delays, cancellations and mishandled bag rates all falling in the first two weeks of September.
On time performance has improved from 52 per cent of flights on time in July, to 67 per cent in August and 71 per cent from 1-14 September.
Flight cancellations also reduced to just 2 per cent during the month so far, down from 7.5 per cent in June and 4 per cent in August. The current figure is below pre-COVID levels.
Mishandled bags are at 6 per 1000 passengers overall and at 5 per 1000 for domestic – which is at pre-COVID levels. There has been an increase in the average number of bags being checked in per passenger compared to pre-COVID, reflecting the strong rebound in leisure travel.
Performance will be tested in coming weeks with school holidays, long weekends and football finals driving high levels of demand at peak times. Customers are encouraged to arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time for domestic flights and three hours ahead for international flights.
With baggage services normalising, customers are encouraged to check-in bags to stay within their carry-on baggage allowances and avoid boarding delays that can be caused by overhead baggage Tetris, despite our crew’s skill in this area.
Key statistics 1-14 September:
2 per cent of flights were cancelled across Qantas and QantasLink. This is compared to 4 per cent in August, and down from 7.5 per cent in June 2022. This is slightly lower than it was before COVID, when we cancelled 2.4 per cent of flights. Cancellations are often due to crew availability or aircraft serviceability, with safety always coming before schedule.
71 per cent of our flights left on time, up almost 40 per cent in two months (the rate was 52 per cent in July). Weather and air traffic control issues can often impact on time performance, with strong winds leading to a slowdown in aircraft landing rates.
The rate of mishandled bags was 6 in 1000 overall and 5 in 1000 for domestic. This is down from 12 in 1000 in April 2022.
This continued improvement is driven by several factors, including:
More than 1500 additional people joining the airlines since April, including cabin crew, airport customer service staff, and engineers, with recruitment continuing.
A reduction to the total number of domestic flights has increased availability of staff on standby, which lessens the impact of crew sick leave, the key driver of cancelled and delayed flights in July. This translates into fewer spare seats on each flight.
Ground handling suppliers increasing their workforce by 25 per cent since April.
More than 120 new self-service kiosks have been rolled out across the network, which are four times faster than the technology they replace. More than 80 per cent of Qantas customers now check-in online.
