This was published 1 year ago
'Final test' for airlines still to come after record delays, cancellations
By Katherine Scott
Katerina Andreevski was stranded in Bangkok after Jetstar cancelled her flight and left passengers to fend for themselves.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The summer school holidays will be the 'final test' for Australian airlines struggling to cope with staff shortages and passenger demand, with experts warning the situation is unlikely to improve until next year.
The warning comes after local airlines delivered their worst month on record for on-time flights and cancellations.
Daniel Kwek, program director for aviation at the University of South Australia, said the upcoming November and December peak travel period will be the final test for the aviation industry, but expects traffic volumes to taper off and "reach some form of equilibrium" from January.
"I would expect some chaos again come November/December, due to the school holiday season, but I will expect it to improve next year," said Kwek.
Kwek said it's unlikely we'll see a repeat of the scale of disruptions experienced in July, partially fuelled by pent-up demand.
"Following record lows, airlines are doing a lot right now to minimise that happening again. Airports are now in a better place to handle December crowds," he said.
Australian airlines' had their worst month on record for on-time performance and cancellations in July, according to data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE).
Airlines reported an average on-time performance of just 55 per cent for arrivals and 54 per cent for departures – significantly lower than 2019 averages during the same period of 73.9 per cent and 75.7 per cent. Jetstar recorded the highest percentage of cancellations at 8.8 per cent.
It's the worst performance since the monthly BITRE report commenced in November 2003, with a departmental spokesperson also citing "weather and COVID-related issues" impacting operations.
Despite indicators showing improvements in August, it's not smooth sailing just yet, with engineering issues impacting Jetstar's international flights this week.
Katerina Andreevski was one of thousands of Australians caught up in Jetstar's issues, after a cancelled flight left her and about 50 others stranded in Bangkok over the weekend.
The 59-year-old says Jetstar staff were nowhere to be found when she learned her connecting flight had been cancelled due to engineering reasons.
"It was horrible. There was no support, there was no assistance, no hotel voucher, nothing. We were left at Bangkok Airport to fend for ourselves," said Andreevski, who claims she still hasn't received a refund despite having to fork out $1600 for a new flight home.
With few flights available, Andreevski settled on a Vietnam Airlines service departing the following day with two stopovers that would take 30 hours.
Andreevski described the airline's lack of assistance during the two-day ordeal as "inhumane".
"I was looking after four eldery passengers with no English, no credit cards, who were stressed out after travelling for 50 hours from Europe," she said. "After having to walk around the airport trying to find someone to help us, my feet were so swollen I couldn't walk."
Elsewhere, about 4000 Jetstar customers had their Bali flights cancelled due to half of the airline's long-haul fleet being out of service amid maintenance and engineering problems.
On Wednesday the Qantas-owned budget airline commenced the first of five special services to bring people home, with about 180 Jetstar customers yet to rebook alternative flights.
Jetstar apologised to customers for the disruption, citing "a lightning strike, a bird strike, damage from an item on the runway and delays sourcing a specific spare part" for the cancellations.
Mike Arnot from aviation analytics firm Cirium said Australian carriers will have learned valuable lessons from the northern hemisphere's summer season.
"In North America, the peak of travel chaos was July 15 — the busiest flying day of the summer — but that subsided very quickly. There were pockets of problem areas at specific airports but a combination of hiring ground staff, schedule reductions and passenger patience seems to have eased tensions," said Arnot.
"An airline's job is to use data to peer into a crystal ball and they will have more aircraft, more crew, and together with airports, more ground staff by the 2023 summer travel season".
Australia's aviation sector, which has been scaling up recruitment efforts and making operational changes in the wake of July's disruptions, is already noting an uptick in performance ahead of the September school holidays.
Virgin Australia, which reported 874 cancellations in July, has improved on-time performance close to 70 per cent in August from 51 per cent. Qantas, which reported 458 cancellations in July, has brought its on-time performance up to 67 per cent from 52 per cent, with a target of 75 per cent in September.
Sydney Airport will hold a second jobs fair on September 21 to recruit staff for more than 4000 vacancies heading into the September school holidays and Christmas periods.
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