Australian travellers have endured delays as airline arrivals and departure times slumped below average over the festive season.
Government data for domestic on-time performance in December 2022 shows arrival and departure times were significantly lower than the long-term average performance for all routes across the country.
The December report card reveal on-time performance dropped to 71.1 per cent for arrivals and 70.8 per cent for on-time departures.
The performance was significantly lower than 2021 results of 84.2 per cent for on-time arrivals and 83.2 per cent for departures, according to the report by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics.
The figures also show a 3.4 per cent cancellation rate for the month.
Qantas achieved the highest number of on-time arrivals of major domestic airlines at 73.0 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia at 67.3 per cent and Jetstar at 62.0 per cent.
Of the regional airlines, QantasLink recorded 78.4 per cent for on-time arrivals, followed by Rex Airlines at 73.2 per cent and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 69.9 per cent.
Jetstar recorded the highest rate of cancellations at 7.2 per cent, followed by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (5.0 per cent), Virgin Australia (3.4 per cent), Qantas (2.9 per cent), QantasLink (2.5 per cent) and Rex Airlines (0.7 per cent).
Of the 60 routes within the criteria for on-time performance reporting in December 2022, the Adelaide-Canberra route had the highest percentage at 90.2 per cent, and the highest percentage of on-time departures (89.2 per cent).
One of the worst-performing routes was Darwin-Perth, with on-time arrivals of 50 per cent and the lowest percentage of on-time departures at 46.2 per cent.
Cancellations were highest on the Sydney to Melbourne route at 9.3 per cent, followed by Melbourne to Sydney (9.1 per cent), Sunshine Coast-Sydney (8.1 per cent), Sydney-Canberra (7.1 per cent) and Canberra-Sydney (6.8 per cent).
© AAP 2023
