• Monthly Reports and time series data
• Annual reports—financial and calendar years

Summary—January 2026

For January 2026, on time performance over all routes operated by participating airlines (Hinterland, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Rex Airlines, Skytrans Australia (formerly SmartLynx Australia), Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) averaged 78.4% for on time arrivals and 78.9% for on time departures. The cancellation rate for the month was 2.1%. The equivalent figures for January 2025 were 75.8% for on time arrivals, 75.8% for on time departures and 2.1% for cancellations. 

This month’s on time arrivals figure was lower than the long term average performance for all routes (80.5%) and the on time departures figure was also lower than the long term average (81.6%). The rate of cancellations was lower than the long term average of 2.2%.

The Virgin Australia network (Virgin Australia and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines combined operations) recorded 82.0% for on time arrivals while the Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink combined operations) recorded 80.9%. Hinterland achieved the highest on time arrivals at 87.9%, followed by Virgin Australia at 82.3%, QantasLink at 81.8%, Rex Airlines at 79.2%, Qantas at 79.0%, Jetstar at 67.7%, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 64.8% and Skytrans Australia at 59.5%. 

The Virgin Australia network recorded 82.5% for on time departures while the Qantas network recorded 81.6%. Hinterland achieved the highest level of on time departures for January 2026 at 91.9%, followed by Rex Airlines at 83.7%, Virgin Australia at 82.7%, QantasLink at 81.7%, Qantas at 81.4%, Skytrans Australia at 67.4%, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 65.4% and Jetstar at 65.1%.

QantasLink recorded the highest percentage of cancellations at 3.3% during the month, followed by Jetstar at 3.2%, Skytrans Australia at 2.0%, Qantas and Hinterland both at 1.5%, Virgin Australia at 0.9%, Rex Airlines at 0.8% and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 0.6%.

Airlines’ on time performance varies across the routes they serve. Individual route data by specific airline for 59 routes are shown on pages 10-21.

Of the 59 routes which met the criteria for on time performance reporting in January 2026, the Canberra-Adelaide route had the highest percentage of on time arrivals (94.7%) and the highest percentage of on time departures (92.0%). The Hamilton Island-Sydney route had the lowest percentage of on time arrivals (51.4%) and the lowest percentage of on time departures (51.4%). 

Cancellations were highest on the Hamilton Island-Brisbane route at 9.0%, followed by the Brisbane-Hamilton Island route at 7.8%, the Hamilton Island-Sydney and Sydney-Hamilton Island routes, both at 5.1%, Mackay-Brisbane route at 4.8%, Gladstone-Brisbane route at 4.7% and the Coffs Harbour-Sydney route at 4.6%.

Alice Springs Airport recorded the highest percentage of on time arrivals (90.9%), while Port Lincoln Airport had the highest percentage of on time departures (90.2%). Mildura Airport recorded the lowest percentage of on time arrivals (71.7%) while Hamilton Island Airport had the lowest percentage of on time departures (66.9%). These figures only refer to reported routes and do not cover all flights at these airports.

Table 1: Total Industry On Time performance for January 2026

Figure 1: Total Industry On Time performance by month from January 2023