Perth: poor plane record

Planes are less likely to arrive or leave on time at Perth Domestic Airport than at any other state capital, new figures show...

The Federal Government analysis of airline on-time performance for the last financial year shows 77.8 per cent of departures and 74.8 per cent of arrivals were on time at the airport, clearly the worst record of any state capital and among the poorest performances of any of the country's airports.

Only Darwin (74 per cent) and the NSW regional centres of Wagga Wagga (66.2 per cent), Albury (70.4 per cent) and Dubbo (74.6 per cent) recorded worse figures for arrivals, while the performance for departures ranked Perth 22nd out of the 31 airports surveyed nationally.

Regional operator Skywest was the major contributor to late arrivals, with just two-thirds of its services touching down on time, while major players Virgin Blue (71.8 per cent) and Qantas (74.6 per cent) also performed poorly.

Qantas (74.4 per cent), its offshoot Jetstar (65 per cent) and Tiger Airways (67.9 per cent) were the most sluggish airlines to leave Perth.

Regional QantasLink services had the best arrival and departure records, with 85.9 per cent and 87.4 per cent on-time respectively.

Flights leaving for Melbourne (71.2 per cent) and Brisbane (72 per cent) were least likely to depart on time while flights from the Victorian capital (73.5 per cent) and Broome (76.2 per cent) were the least likely to meet their scheduled arrival times.

The results for regional WA airports were a mixed bag. Broome performed worse than Perth, with 71.1 per cent of departures and 76.2 per cent of arrivals on time, while Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Newman all easily outperformed the state's largest airport.

Kalgoorlie, which ranked seventh in Australia for both on-time arrivals and departures, was the only WA airport to make the top 10 in either category.

Source: www.theage.com.au