Tiger Airways more likely late than never | The Australian
Steve Creedy From: The Australian December 23, 2010 12:00AM
The low-cost carrier Tiger Airways plumbed new depths in its record on lateness last month.[/B]
The airline's ability to get customers to and from their destination on time has been worsening since April, and headed below 60 per cent last month.
Government figures show it managed to get just 59.2 per cent of its planes away on time, while 59.6 per cent arrived punctually. This was well below the major domestic carriers' average of 81.9 per cent for departures and 80.2 per cent for arrivals. A spokeswoman said the airline's on-time performance suffered last month from "a higher than usual number of unexpected factors including weather and engineering".
"We focus on completion (of journeys) and sometimes, as a result, our on-time performance suffers," she said. "As we grow, the economies of scale will assist us in this area."
On-time performance leader Qantas managed 83.6 per cent of its domestic flights away on time and landed punctually 84.4 per cent of the time. However, Tiger's cancellation rate of 0.4 per cent was a third that of the flying kangaroo's 1.2 per cent.
Blackspots for on-time departures included the Sunshine Coast-Melbourne route (47.4 per cent) and Sydney-Hamilton Island (58.3 per cent). Ayers Rock-Sydney had the highest percentage of on-time departures.
Routes where travellers were most likely to find their flights cancelled included Perth-Broome (3.6 per cent), Melbourne-Sydney (3.4 per cent) and Sydney-Melbourne (2.9 per cent).