Wirraway
8th Mar 2004, 00:22
Mon "The Courier Mail"
Air rivals fight to be there on time
Peter Morley
March 8, 2004
QANTAS flights arrive on time more often than rival Virgin Blue although the latter has a better record of leaving on schedule, according to a Federal Government report to be released today.
It shows that Qantas got home first in January and December while Virgin Blue performed best in November. But in November and December, Virgin out-performed Qantas in lifting off closer to scheduled departure times.
The three-month Transport Bureau study is the first attempt to report the on-time performance of the major airlines, QantasLink and two regionals on 39 routes with a passenger load of more than 8000 a month.
Virgin Blue publishes its monthly performance on the Internet and had been challenging Qantas to do the same.
But Qantas refused until the airlines agreed on a format for collecting and comparing the information. In the meantime, it set up an internal body to improve its departure and arrival performance.
In January, 89.5 per cent of Qantas flights arrived at the gate "on time" - which is considered no more than 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time.
Virgin Blue came in with 83.8 per cent and QantasLink 86.3 per cent
The December performance of Qantas was 86.6 per cent compared with Virgin Blue's 86.3 and QantasLink 83.2. In November, it was Virgin Blue with 88.7 per cent on-time arrivals, Qantas 88.4 and QantasLink 86.9
On its website, Virgin Blue says that 91 per cent of its flights arrived on time in February. According to the company its performance has been improving each month.
In January the five airlines involved in the Transport study had an average on-time performance of 86.7 per cent on the 31,685 flights operated. There were 228 cancellations - 124 by QantasLink, 74 by Qantas and 21 by Virgin Blue.
Transport Minister John Anderson said the study showed that domestic airlines compared favourably with the benchmarks set by airlines in Europe and surpassed those of US carriers.
"Reports will now be published monthly , providing incentives for airlines to maintain and improve their punctuality," Mr Anderson said.
The study also details airport performance. Flights out of and into Brisbane in December were on time in 86 per cent of cases.
Queensland's most efficient airport was Cairns followed by Mackay, Gold Coast, Townsville and Rockhampton and Maroochydore.
Meanwhile, another budget airline plans to follow newcomer JetStar into the Australian skies.
Formula One Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart said yesterday he hoped his Ozjet would be operating the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne routes by the end of the year.
"We'll start off with about half a dozen aircraft, probably launching in about October," he said. "We're hoping to get in just before Christmas."
In Brisbane, OzJet would probably operate from Archerfield.
When JetStar said it might consider operating from Archerfield, there was public outcry because flightpaths would take planes over heavy residential areas.
It was claimed that adapting the airport for jets would cost about $100 million.
The Courier-Mail
=========================================
Air rivals fight to be there on time
Peter Morley
March 8, 2004
QANTAS flights arrive on time more often than rival Virgin Blue although the latter has a better record of leaving on schedule, according to a Federal Government report to be released today.
It shows that Qantas got home first in January and December while Virgin Blue performed best in November. But in November and December, Virgin out-performed Qantas in lifting off closer to scheduled departure times.
The three-month Transport Bureau study is the first attempt to report the on-time performance of the major airlines, QantasLink and two regionals on 39 routes with a passenger load of more than 8000 a month.
Virgin Blue publishes its monthly performance on the Internet and had been challenging Qantas to do the same.
But Qantas refused until the airlines agreed on a format for collecting and comparing the information. In the meantime, it set up an internal body to improve its departure and arrival performance.
In January, 89.5 per cent of Qantas flights arrived at the gate "on time" - which is considered no more than 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time.
Virgin Blue came in with 83.8 per cent and QantasLink 86.3 per cent
The December performance of Qantas was 86.6 per cent compared with Virgin Blue's 86.3 and QantasLink 83.2. In November, it was Virgin Blue with 88.7 per cent on-time arrivals, Qantas 88.4 and QantasLink 86.9
On its website, Virgin Blue says that 91 per cent of its flights arrived on time in February. According to the company its performance has been improving each month.
In January the five airlines involved in the Transport study had an average on-time performance of 86.7 per cent on the 31,685 flights operated. There were 228 cancellations - 124 by QantasLink, 74 by Qantas and 21 by Virgin Blue.
Transport Minister John Anderson said the study showed that domestic airlines compared favourably with the benchmarks set by airlines in Europe and surpassed those of US carriers.
"Reports will now be published monthly , providing incentives for airlines to maintain and improve their punctuality," Mr Anderson said.
The study also details airport performance. Flights out of and into Brisbane in December were on time in 86 per cent of cases.
Queensland's most efficient airport was Cairns followed by Mackay, Gold Coast, Townsville and Rockhampton and Maroochydore.
Meanwhile, another budget airline plans to follow newcomer JetStar into the Australian skies.
Formula One Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart said yesterday he hoped his Ozjet would be operating the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne routes by the end of the year.
"We'll start off with about half a dozen aircraft, probably launching in about October," he said. "We're hoping to get in just before Christmas."
In Brisbane, OzJet would probably operate from Archerfield.
When JetStar said it might consider operating from Archerfield, there was public outcry because flightpaths would take planes over heavy residential areas.
It was claimed that adapting the airport for jets would cost about $100 million.
The Courier-Mail
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