The best and worst airlines for flight cancellations | World News,The Indian Express
A supercharged rebound in bookings as Covid-19 travel restrictions ease has overwhelmed even the largest and most established names in aviation.
Passengers flying with Virgin Australia and Dutch carrier KLM are suffering some of the biggest disruptions to travel as the understaffed aviation industry struggles to cope with a resurgence in demand, schedules show.
Zeroing in on a group of 19 airlines around the world — the same one Qantas Airways Ltd. uses to assess its performance against peers — Virgin Australia cancelled the biggest proportion of flights in the three months through July 26, according to data from analytics company Cirium. It axed close to 2,200 flights, or 5.9% of its schedule, compared with 1.4% in the same period in 2019.
Air New Zealand Ltd., Sydney-based Qantas and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s biggest airline, rounded out the five that cancelled flights most often in the period. Singapore Airlines Ltd. had the best record, scrapping just 0.1% of planned services.
A supercharged rebound in bookings as Covid-19 travel restrictions ease has overwhelmed even the largest and most established names in aviation. After laying off tens of thousands of pilots, flight crew, baggage handlers and security staff during the pandemic, the industry can’t hire fast enough to keep up. Analysts say it may be months before normal levels of service return.
The carriers assessed in the three-month period mirror those used by Qantas to benchmark its total shareholder return, according to the airline’s annual report. The group includes International Consolidated Airlines Group, owner of British Airways Plc and Iberia, and Qantas itself.
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