Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion
mannej, there are no significant delays that I can see at present ex or into MEL with VA.
However I agree: Friday 31 July 2014 had extremely poor punctuality for all four major airlines (not so sure about Rex) due to abysmal weather in MEL, but of the two biggest airlines, from what I saw, yes, VA was more badly affected than QF last Friday.
The bad performance on the last day of the month will have pushed down the monthly performance. MEL is now such an important part of the national airline network that many planes pass through it at least once a day, and with so many connecting passengers despite the airlines' laudable efforts over the years to connect more 'city pairs' (not all of which have been successful - look at QF's effort that has just been revoked - SYD - GLT, and TT's more than once if I recall attempt to run MEL - ASP and SYD - ASP nonstop), a late running MEL - SYD flight can affect QantasLink or VA elsewhere.
In June 2014, for domestic, QF mainline was the most punctual, followed by the much smaller operation of Rex, then Virgin Australia, then amazingly Virgin Australia Regional Airlines and Jetstar tying at 81.1 per cent of arrivals on time (i.e. within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival), then QantasLink and (a long way back) Tigerair.
However the difference between Qantas (mainline) and Virgin Australia (mainline) was not huge at three (raw) percentage points in arrival punctuality. Virgin mainline operated 1300 more flights than QF mainline in that month for what it's worth. I don't believe that departure (pushback) punctuality means anything because it's the arrival time that businessmen and women focus upon.
All the airlines pad their schedules, as travel writers have pointed out. This is a great way to further disguise unpunctuality. They claim that this is due to congestion in SYD but even routes like MEL to CBR and return have slower timetables than 20 years ago.
In June 2014, 22.9 per cent of all flights arriving in MEL were 15 minutes or more late, compared with just 16.5 per cent of arrivals in SYD. This is a fairly large difference.
In June 2014, Jetstar cancelled six per cent of both its SYD - MEL and MEL - SYD flights (a lot) while both QF and VA cancelled between 4.6 and 4.9 per cent of SYD - MEL - SYD flights. While the density of flights (as high as 15 minutes at peak times) means that it can be 'easy' to cancel a flight if there are low bookings both ways (and mechanical failures or weather can also play their part), five or six per cent of cancellations is high.
mannej, please be assured that when I next see a major VA delay I'll post about it. I may even also start a TT delays thread as that airline is not immune from unpunctuality.
