Kiwi Flyer
Sep 4, 07, 2:36 pm
Queenstown is a mountain airport and often subject to closure/delays due to weather conditions.
I thought it might be interesting to check the stats for Qantas (Jetconnect) and Air NZ flights in and out of Queenstown during the middle of winter (2 months ended early September).
I've used flightstats.com data but adjusted for obvious inconsistencies. Note the data excludes Mount Cook Airlines ATR flights (NZ flight numbers), and thus only compares 737 flights.
Airline flights ontime late cancel/divert
Qantas 357 50% 30% 20%
Air NZ 503 70% 25% 5%
Within each airline not much difference in cancellations/diversions by route, but for both airlines CHC-ZQN vv had slightly less ontime and more late compared with AKL-ZQN vv (nonstop).
While Qantas claims their higher cancellation/diversion rate is due to higher safety standards, I think it isn't that simple. Jetconnect have a very small fleet that has very high utilisation and having an aircraft stuck at Queenstown (eg during overnight curfew) has proportionately much bigger flow-on operational effects than for Air NZ. Hence it may well be cheaper for them to divert (to Invercargill) or cancel a flight than to risk the aircraft getting stuck in Queenstown. The high utilisation will also have an impact on the stats - if the aircraft flying to and from Queenstown late afternoon is delayed too much earlier in the day then it will not be able to beat ZQN curfew (darkness).
I thought it might be interesting to check the stats for Qantas (Jetconnect) and Air NZ flights in and out of Queenstown during the middle of winter (2 months ended early September).
I've used flightstats.com data but adjusted for obvious inconsistencies. Note the data excludes Mount Cook Airlines ATR flights (NZ flight numbers), and thus only compares 737 flights.
Airline flights ontime late cancel/divert
Qantas 357 50% 30% 20%
Air NZ 503 70% 25% 5%
Within each airline not much difference in cancellations/diversions by route, but for both airlines CHC-ZQN vv had slightly less ontime and more late compared with AKL-ZQN vv (nonstop).
While Qantas claims their higher cancellation/diversion rate is due to higher safety standards, I think it isn't that simple. Jetconnect have a very small fleet that has very high utilisation and having an aircraft stuck at Queenstown (eg during overnight curfew) has proportionately much bigger flow-on operational effects than for Air NZ. Hence it may well be cheaper for them to divert (to Invercargill) or cancel a flight than to risk the aircraft getting stuck in Queenstown. The high utilisation will also have an impact on the stats - if the aircraft flying to and from Queenstown late afternoon is delayed too much earlier in the day then it will not be able to beat ZQN curfew (darkness).