Originally Posted by
43Inches
All fine except I've had several QF group cancellations on Sydney - Melbourne flights where the delay was over 4 hours, including with mainline. So your argument falls apart to say that having a more frequent schedule means less disruption to a passenger if a flight is cancelled. It all depends on why a flight was cancelled and if there was space available to accommodate everyone on the next or over several flights throughout the day.
Cancellation rates and OTP are very important for passengers on 'quick' day trips such as business travel or medical appointments. Even 1 hour delays can be the difference in getting things done or not, or having to book a hotel for the night.
And of course, the anecdotal exception proves the rule.
The extraordinarily simple and uncontroversial maths that underpins the argument is that a cancellation on a route that has only five services a day with an average of roughly 2.6 hours between flights will likely cause a more significant disruption to passengers than a cancellation where the airline operates 30 flights a day with an average of less than 30 minutes between them.