Back to basics stance paying off - Jetstar

Jetstar's New Zealand head, Grant Kerr, said the latest results followed a pattern of consistently improving on-time reliability this year.

Jetstar says its back to basics approach is paying dividends with a strong lift in on-time performance this year.

The airline, which has about 22.4 per cent of the domestic market, said 89.4 per cent of its flights left within 10 minutes of scheduled departure time in August.

Air New Zealand's operational figures for the same month show 84.6 per cent of its domestic flights departed within 10 minutes of scheduled departure time.

Jetstar's performance in September improved further with 89.7 per cent of flights meeting the departure time.

Jetstar's New Zealand head, Grant Kerr, said the latest results followed a pattern of consistently improving on-time reliability this year.

"Jetstar committed earlier this year to getting the basics right for customers, with a particular focus on ensuring that flights depart and arrive on time."

The Qantas-owned airline had punctuality problems when it first started flying domestic routes in 2009 but for the nine months ended in September it said its average monthly 10-minute domestic on-time performance was 83 per cent, up from 74 per cent for the same period last year.

In the year to June 30 the number of New Zealand domestic passengers on Jetstar rose 17 per cent to 1.87 million.