Jetstar called out for cancellations in Australia Competition and Consumer Commission report

Jetstar was called out for being "worse" than other airlines.

Jetstar is “notably worse” than other airlines in Australia when it comes to cancellations, according to an industry report.

The Airline Competition in Australia report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published this month shows flight cancellations have become more common over the year. In April 2023, 3.9 per cent of flights were cancelled, higher than the industry’s long-term average of 2.1 per cent. This totalled around 1700 flights.

Of the flights that did go ahead, only 71.8 per cent arrived on time. This meant more than 12,000 flights arrived more than 15 minutes late, the report stated.

The ACCC found some airlines were worse than others. Jetstar in particular was called out for its high rate of cancellation and lateness.

“Jetstar continued to perform significantly worse than the rest of the industry,” the report stated. “It cancelled 8.1 per cent of flights in April, more than double the rate of the other airlines.”

ACCC counted a flight as cancelled “if it is cancelled or rescheduled less than 7 days prior to its scheduled departure time”.

Qantas cancelled 3.3 per cent of its flights, Virgin Australia 3.1 per cent and Rex cancelled 2.8 per cent. Australia’s new airline Bonza performed strongly and cancelled just 0.5 per cent of flights.

The low-cost Bonza only services domestic and regional routes.

Jetstar didn’t appear to fare better when judged on punctuality either. In April 2023, only 59.7 per cent of Jetstar flights arrived on time.

The report noted Jetstar announced plans to hire more staff to deal with the issues.

“To improve reliability, Jetstar announced in May that it was recruiting more airport staff, cabin crew and engineering team members, as well as making changes to its check-in, bag drop and boarding times,” the report stated.

Bonza also struggled with arrival times. Its on-time performance declined in April after launching eight more routes and 49.3 per cent of flights arrived on time.

The prize for most punctual went to Qantas: in April 78.4 per cent of flights were on time.

In October 2022, the Commerce Commission New Zealand announced it would investigate Jetstar after a formal complaint from Consumer NZ. The watchdog claims Jetstar is misleading consumers about their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled; a breach of the Fair Trading Act.

In August last year, an Aucklander was misled about how much compensation he could claim after flight cancellations. In April 2023, another traveller claims she was unable to contact Jetstar about her rights after multiple flight cancellations.