Australia's most punctual airlines
Share of flights departing on time over the 12 months to Jul 2026, across every Australian domestic route the airline flies. A departure counts as on time if it leaves within 15 minutes of schedule.
Qantas departed on time 81.9% of the time; Virgin Australia Regional Airlines 65.7%. That is a gap of 16 percentage points between flying the best and the worst performer on an ordinary Australian route.
| # | Airline | On time | Cancelled | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qantas | 81.9% | 2.0% | 81,097 |
| 2 | QantasLink | 79.1% | 3.1% | 99,884 |
| 3 | Virgin Australia | 77.9% | 1.3% | 140,938 |
| 4 | Rex Airlines | 71.8% | 3.9% | 16,226 |
| 5 | Jetstar | 70.4% | 2.3% | 79,978 |
| 6 | Virgin Australia Regional Airlines | 65.7% | 1.5% | 1,429 |
12 months to Jul 2026 · National average 78.2% on time, 2.1% cancelled
Airlines within the same group are ranked separately, because they do not perform alike. Qantas and QantasLink share a booking system and a brand, but on every route both of them fly, QantasLink cancels more — sometimes several times as often. Rolling them into one figure would hide that.
Punctuality is published only for domestic flights. Singapore Airlines, Emirates and every other international carrier are absent from this ranking because the data is not collected, not because they were left out.