Qantas Blames Delays On Its Staff
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday September 6, 2008
QANTAS suffered a further deterioration in flights delayed and cancelled in July, with almost one in six services scheduled between Sydney and Melbourne scrubbed.
During the month more than a third of the airline's domestic flights were at least 15 minutes late departing or arriving - 37 per cent and 36 per cent respectively - the latest figures from the federal Transport Department show. About 44 per cent of its aircraft were late leaving Sydney Airport. Making matters worse for Qantas, one in 15 domestic flights were cancelled in July - about the same as in June, which was regarded as a horrific month for the airline.The continued poor on-time performance figures are another blow to Qantas's reputation, which was severely dented this week when a review by the aviation safety authority found the airline was hardly meeting any of its maintenance benchmarks. Yesterday Qantas blamed the poor performance figures in July on a 10-week long stand-off with its licensed aircraft engineers. The dispute ended on July 18, but it is understood the backlog of engineering work needed on aircraft means the airline's on-time performance is unlikely to have improved much in August. Almost one in six of Qantas's fights between Sydney and Melbourne - the third-busiest route in the world - were cancelled in July. In contrast, Virgin Blue, the country's second-largest airline, fared much better with only one in 25 of its flights cancelled. Qantas's poor record pushed the cancellation rate for all airlines on the Sydney-Melbourne route to one in 10 flights. Qantas's budget offshoot, Jetstar, also performed poorly in July with 37.8 per cent of flights arriving at least 15 minutes late at their destinations and a third failing to depart on time.The delays have also been felt across Qantas's international network. Of the 20 or so Qantas and Jetstar international flights to leave Sydney yesterday morning, four were more than an hour late. A flight bound for Hong Kong was more than three hours late.Qantas's departing chief executive, Geoff Dixon, said at the airline's profit results briefing last month that it was likely to take until halfway through this month to resolve scheduling problems caused by the industrial dispute with its engineers.Yesterday, a Qantas spokesman said the primary cause for the "below average on-time departures" in July was a lack of available aircraft due to overtime bans by its engineers in June and July. Jetstar blamed its poor on-time performance in July on "seasonality issues", such as fog at airports and other bad weather, and "some mechanical problems". A Jetstar spokesman said the introduction of a cheaper fare, in return for fewer bags, caused delays at airport gates because some passengers turned up with too much baggage. However, he said the airline had shown an improvement in its on-time performance in August - something it regarded as one of its top three priorities.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald