The worst Australian airports for flight delays
Hobart, Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne are the poorest performers.
For the second year running, Hobart Airport in Tasmania has proven the most unreliable for on-time departures, while Queensland's Townsville Airport gets you away the quickest, according to new research.
Analysing the latest data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) on the performance of domestic airports and airlines in Australia over the 12 months to June 2016, finder.com.au discovered Australia’s busiest domestic airports.
More than one-fifth (21.8%) of flights did not depart Hobart on time in 2015/16. Comparatively, less than 10% of outbound flights from Townsville Airport were delayed during the same period.
The data also revealed that both of Australia's busiest domestic airports, Sydney and Melbourne, shared higher rates (16.2%) of missed scheduled departures than most other airports around the country.
| Ranking 2016 | Airport | % on-time departures 2015/16 | % increase from 2014/15 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Townsville | 90.7 | 3.6 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 90.1 | 0.7 |
| 3 | Perth | 90.1 | 0.5 |
| 4 | Brisbane | 89.7 | 2.1 |
| 5 | Canberra | 88.3 | -0.4 |
| 6 | Cairns | 87.7 | 3.3 |
| 7 | Darwin | 85.2 | 4.6 |
| 8 | Sydney | 84.8 | -0.6 |
| 9 | Melbourne | 84.8 | -0.7 |
| 10 | Gold Coast | 82.7 | -1.8 |
| 11 | Hobart | 78.2 | 0 |
Qantas' low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar, was the least reliable, with more than one-fifth (21.8%) of passengers experiencing arrival delays in the year to June 2016.
Virgin Australia was the most punctual, posting an on-time arrivals success rate of 89.5%.
Overall domestic airline performance was above the long-term average for both arrivals and departures in 2015/16, although there were more cancellations last year (1.6%) than the long-term average (1.4%).
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