Air rivals fight to be there on time
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Air rivals fight to be there on time
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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Mon "The Australian"
Regional carrier shows up air giants
By Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
March 08, 2004
PERTH-BASED regional airline Skywest beat big operators Qantas and Virgin Blue to record the best on-time performance for three successive months and take out line honours in the nation's first official comparison of airline punctuality.
The Transport Department comparisons, due to be unveiled today by Transport Minister John Anderson, show 95 per cent of Skywest departures and arrivals in January were within 15 minutes of schedule and it had no cancellations. Virgin Blue recorded the worst January performance, with 84.4 per cent of departures on time, while 87.3 per cent of Qantas flights left on time.
The figures – available for November, December and January – are designed to allow consumers to compare Skywest, Regional Express, Virgin Blue, Qantas and Qantas regional subsidiary QantasLink.
Figures so far suggest Australia rates favourably with on-time performance in Europe and is ahead of the US, where the on-time average last year was a near-record high of 81.9 per cent.
But as many as one in four planes departed late on several routes in December, and Qantas regional subsidiary QantasLink averaged 128 cancellations per month over the three months.
The figures also did not support the conventional wisdom that the nation's busiest airport, Sydney, is the one worst affected by delays.
Across all airlines, 88.2 per cent of departures were on time from Sydney in January, and 88.9 per cent of arrivals.
A dozen airports – including Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – fell below that mark.
The new figures include a breakdown for 39 routes where passenger loads average more than 8000 travellers per month, as well as airline performance at 25 airports.
The Transport Department worked with airlines for six months to arrive at a format for the new figures, which will be available on the Web from today.
Mr Anderson believes they will provide an incentive for airlines to maintain and improve their punctuality.
Regional carrier shows up air giants
By Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
March 08, 2004
PERTH-BASED regional airline Skywest beat big operators Qantas and Virgin Blue to record the best on-time performance for three successive months and take out line honours in the nation's first official comparison of airline punctuality.
The Transport Department comparisons, due to be unveiled today by Transport Minister John Anderson, show 95 per cent of Skywest departures and arrivals in January were within 15 minutes of schedule and it had no cancellations. Virgin Blue recorded the worst January performance, with 84.4 per cent of departures on time, while 87.3 per cent of Qantas flights left on time.
The figures – available for November, December and January – are designed to allow consumers to compare Skywest, Regional Express, Virgin Blue, Qantas and Qantas regional subsidiary QantasLink.
Figures so far suggest Australia rates favourably with on-time performance in Europe and is ahead of the US, where the on-time average last year was a near-record high of 81.9 per cent.
But as many as one in four planes departed late on several routes in December, and Qantas regional subsidiary QantasLink averaged 128 cancellations per month over the three months.
The figures also did not support the conventional wisdom that the nation's busiest airport, Sydney, is the one worst affected by delays.
Across all airlines, 88.2 per cent of departures were on time from Sydney in January, and 88.9 per cent of arrivals.
A dozen airports – including Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – fell below that mark.
The new figures include a breakdown for 39 routes where passenger loads average more than 8000 travellers per month, as well as airline performance at 25 airports.
The Transport Department worked with airlines for six months to arrive at a format for the new figures, which will be available on the Web from today.
Mr Anderson believes they will provide an incentive for airlines to maintain and improve their punctuality.
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Here is a link to the data:
http://www.btre.gov.au/avstats/OTP/OTPHOME.htm
http://www.btre.gov.au/avstats/OTP/OTPHOME.htm
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QF departs last but arrives first?
Must admit I am not surprised by the statistics. From where I sit, QF and VB operate like-type aircraft but fly them very differently - QF often chasing the mid-F200s for better winds but VB always up in the high F300s+. Not sure about differences in cruising Mach Nos though.
It often happens that a QF will depart for the same destination as a VB flight that has already departed but land first. Sometimes the GS differs by as much as 100KTS!!
It often happens that a QF will depart for the same destination as a VB flight that has already departed but land first. Sometimes the GS differs by as much as 100KTS!!
