Why flight cancellations are much worse than you’ve been told

afr.com:

The competition watchdog’s investigation into Qantas flights has revealed that 15,000 Qantas and QantasLink flights were cancelled between May and July 2022 – more than treble the 4149 cancellations publicly reported by the government over the same period.

The monthly reports on domestic airline performance released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) are closely watched by many flyers, who use them to figure out which airline is most reliable.

It’s been revealed 15,000 Qantas and QantasLink flights were cancelled between May and July 2022. Brook Mitchell

They are also monitored by the Qantas board because executives’ short-term bonuses are partially linked to punctual and reliable services and beating other airlines. A Qantas spokesman would not say whether the airline has any plans to review executive pay following the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s allegations that the airline breached consumer law.

However, BITRE uses a relatively short timeframe to measure cancellations for domestic flights, and doesn’t track cancellations for international flights at all. It only considers a flight “cancelled” if it is axed within seven days of a scheduled departure.

But the ACCC defines cancellations as any cancelled flight after an airline has advertised seats being available, regardless of when the airline makes the cancellation.

ACCC chairman Gina Cass-Gottlieb told The Australian Financial Review that the regulator’s investigation had obtained data showing cancellation decisions by Qantas that were made “considerably in advance” of scheduled flight times. “So it’s actually measuring a different, but fuller set of cancellation decisions,” Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.

BITR