Wirraway
15th Nov 2004, 15:21
Tues "The Australian"
Virgin's the latest in the air
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
November 16, 2004
SEPTEMBER proved a terrible month for Virgin Blue and its customers as one in four of the low-cost carrier's flights arrived or took off late - pushing its punctuality performance to the lowest level since statistics began last year.
Department of Transport figures released yesterday show Virgin's 76.6 per cent on-time departures for the month fell well short of those recorded by its major competitors.
The result was 11 percentage points lower than arch-rival Jetstar's 87.6 per cent and almost nine points lower than the 85.3 per cent of Qantas flights which departed on time.
Virgin's on-time arrivals fared only marginally better with 76.7 per cent arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, compared with 87 per cent at Qantas and 89.7 per cent at Jetstar.
Virgin spokesman David Huttner said bad weather had reduced on-time performances across all airlines in September but this was compounded at Virgin when resources became too stretched to handle school holiday traffic.
He said many days in September ran normally but those that were below average were "way below average and we issued a lot of credit notes and compensation on those days".
"We got caught in the mornings, especially during some of the school holidays on a couple of key dates, with some rolling delays which affected us," he said. "Once these started in the morning, we weren't able to recover for the rest of the day. On top of that, we had a major IT outage in the month."
The airline said its October on-time performance had risen to 82 per cent.
The news comes a day before half-year results for the airline - 46 per cent owned by Chris Corrigan's Patrick Corp - with analysts divided over profit growth. In August. Virgin warned that pre-tax earnings for the first four months of 2004-05 were down 22 per cent on a year ago.
Virgin has been battling a fresh onslaught from Qantas offshoot Jetstar and while revenue growth is believed to have been strong, both the major airlines have been hit with higher fuel costs, offset by a rising local currency.
Broker Goldman Sachs JB Were yesterday downgraded first-half profits, while Merrill Lynch downgraded its full-year earnings forecast, both on the basis of fuel costs.
Virgin shares were up 1c to $2.08 yesterday and have surged ahead of the results from lows around $1.65 in the past month.
Mr Huttner said the airline was now putting twice as many passengers through some gates as Ansett had and this had prompted it to speed up a three-month trial of its Blue Check self-service kiosks, the first of which went live in Brisbane yesterday.
The kiosks, expected to be unveiled at other major airports next year, allow passengers to check in, print a boarding pass and choose a seat.
"Part of the reason they were fast-tracked is that we realised in September that we were at the limits of some of our operational capabilities," Mr Huttner said.
Chief executive Brett Godfrey said the Blue Check system would be able to increase flights from selected airports without creating longer check-in lines or raising costs by adding check-in counters to cope with future demand.
Virgin's problems dragged down the industry on-time departures average from 88.5 per cent in August to 85.4 in September. On-time arrivals fell to 85.5 per cent from 87.8 the previous month.
Cancellations also grew in September as the airlines axed 433 flights, boosting cancellations as a proportion of scheduled services from 0.7 to 1.2 per cent. Qantas cancelled 163 of its flights (1.6 per cent), Virgin axed 148 (1.8 per cent) and Jetstar canned 45 (1.3 per cent).
Perth-based Skywest and Regional Express again led the regional carriers.
Skywest benefited from fewer flights and a less complicated route structure to wave off 93.8 per cent of its flights and land 94.7 per cent within the 15-minute margin. It was closely followed by Rex with 92 per cent of arrivals and 90.8 per cent of departures on time.
Just under 89 per cent of Qantaslink flights left on time but only 86.5 per cent reached their destination on schedule.
==========================================
Virgin's the latest in the air
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
November 16, 2004
SEPTEMBER proved a terrible month for Virgin Blue and its customers as one in four of the low-cost carrier's flights arrived or took off late - pushing its punctuality performance to the lowest level since statistics began last year.
Department of Transport figures released yesterday show Virgin's 76.6 per cent on-time departures for the month fell well short of those recorded by its major competitors.
The result was 11 percentage points lower than arch-rival Jetstar's 87.6 per cent and almost nine points lower than the 85.3 per cent of Qantas flights which departed on time.
Virgin's on-time arrivals fared only marginally better with 76.7 per cent arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, compared with 87 per cent at Qantas and 89.7 per cent at Jetstar.
Virgin spokesman David Huttner said bad weather had reduced on-time performances across all airlines in September but this was compounded at Virgin when resources became too stretched to handle school holiday traffic.
He said many days in September ran normally but those that were below average were "way below average and we issued a lot of credit notes and compensation on those days".
"We got caught in the mornings, especially during some of the school holidays on a couple of key dates, with some rolling delays which affected us," he said. "Once these started in the morning, we weren't able to recover for the rest of the day. On top of that, we had a major IT outage in the month."
The airline said its October on-time performance had risen to 82 per cent.
The news comes a day before half-year results for the airline - 46 per cent owned by Chris Corrigan's Patrick Corp - with analysts divided over profit growth. In August. Virgin warned that pre-tax earnings for the first four months of 2004-05 were down 22 per cent on a year ago.
Virgin has been battling a fresh onslaught from Qantas offshoot Jetstar and while revenue growth is believed to have been strong, both the major airlines have been hit with higher fuel costs, offset by a rising local currency.
Broker Goldman Sachs JB Were yesterday downgraded first-half profits, while Merrill Lynch downgraded its full-year earnings forecast, both on the basis of fuel costs.
Virgin shares were up 1c to $2.08 yesterday and have surged ahead of the results from lows around $1.65 in the past month.
Mr Huttner said the airline was now putting twice as many passengers through some gates as Ansett had and this had prompted it to speed up a three-month trial of its Blue Check self-service kiosks, the first of which went live in Brisbane yesterday.
The kiosks, expected to be unveiled at other major airports next year, allow passengers to check in, print a boarding pass and choose a seat.
"Part of the reason they were fast-tracked is that we realised in September that we were at the limits of some of our operational capabilities," Mr Huttner said.
Chief executive Brett Godfrey said the Blue Check system would be able to increase flights from selected airports without creating longer check-in lines or raising costs by adding check-in counters to cope with future demand.
Virgin's problems dragged down the industry on-time departures average from 88.5 per cent in August to 85.4 in September. On-time arrivals fell to 85.5 per cent from 87.8 the previous month.
Cancellations also grew in September as the airlines axed 433 flights, boosting cancellations as a proportion of scheduled services from 0.7 to 1.2 per cent. Qantas cancelled 163 of its flights (1.6 per cent), Virgin axed 148 (1.8 per cent) and Jetstar canned 45 (1.3 per cent).
Perth-based Skywest and Regional Express again led the regional carriers.
Skywest benefited from fewer flights and a less complicated route structure to wave off 93.8 per cent of its flights and land 94.7 per cent within the 15-minute margin. It was closely followed by Rex with 92 per cent of arrivals and 90.8 per cent of departures on time.
Just under 89 per cent of Qantaslink flights left on time but only 86.5 per cent reached their destination on schedule.
==========================================