Calls for more flights as airline performance lags pre-COVID levels

Sydney Airport boss Geoff Culbert has issued a plea to airlines to increase their international capacity while government data shows the industry’s domestic performance remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.

Figures show 3 per cent of scheduled services were cancelled last month and just under 70 per cent of flights arrived and departed on time, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics.

Virgin cancelled 3.6 per cent of flights in October while Rex and Qantas cancelled 2.2 per cent. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone

The average number of on-time arrivals and departures for the same period in 2019 was about 82 per cent, with 1.5 per cent of flights cancelled.

But Culbert, Sydney Airport’s chief executive, is focused on increasing the number of international flights. He said the lack of seat capacity into and out of Australia was “constraining growth”, revealing the total passenger traffic in October remained 25.5 per cent lower than the same period in 2019.

“To see a sustained recovery in our tourism market and visitor economy we need to unlock more capacity as quickly as we can,” Culbert said on Monday.

About 900,000 international passengers passed through Sydney Airport in October, down 35 per cent on the corresponding period in 2019. Sydney Airport’s domestic passenger traffic totalled 2,044,000 over the month, down 20 per cent on the corresponding period in 2019.

Just 65 per cent of Virgin’s domestic flights arrived on time in October, according to the government data, slipping behind the Qantas group’s 74 per cent and Regional Express’s 68 per cent.

Qantas achieved the highest level of on-time departures among the major domestic airlines last month at 73 per cent, followed by Regional Express at 69 per cent, Virgin Australia at 63 per cent and Jetstar at 62 per cent. Virgin flights have departed later than its competitors for eight of the past 12 months.

Jetstar took the crown for the most cancellations in October with 3.9 per cent, followed by Virgin’s 3.6 per cent. Rex and Qantas’ rate hovered around 2 per cent.

The number of people passing through Melbourne Airport was boosted by the T20 cricket world cup and the spring racing carnival but is still about 20 per cent below the same period in 2019. In total, 2,570,990 passengers passed through the airport last month, with international travellers at 65 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and domestic travel at 83 per cent.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Lorie Argus said October had been a significant month for international capacity increases.

“We now have thousands more seats and extra cargo capacity after Qatar Airways added a second daily flight from Melbourne to Doha, and United Airlines resumed flights to Los Angeles while increasing its San Francisco service to daily,” she said.

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