A study has determined the airlines that have the most cancellations in the world, and Australian airline Virgin Australia has dismally taken out the top spot
The study looked at nineteen airlines and their number of cancellations between April 26th and July 26th, 2022. Virgin Australia axed almost 2,200 flights, which is equivalent of 5.9% of its schedule. The figure is particularly high when compared to the same period in 2019, during which Virign Australia only cancelled 1.4% of it’s flights, Bloomberg reports.
Australian airline Qantas also made the top five most cancelled for the period, along with Air New Zealand, Dutch carrier KLM, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
On a more positive note, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Air Asia were listed as the top three airlines with the lowest cancellation stats.
The bleak data for the Aussie airlines is likely linked to the closed borders within the country during the pandemic, during which time thousands of airline staff were laid off.
“Until international airlines return to full workforce capacity that they reduced as a result of the pandemic, we’re going to see demand for air travel exceed supply for a number of months yet, and this is going to keep upward pressure on airfares, especially to destinations in Europe and North America,” Brent Novak, General Manager at Flight Centre Australia told Escape.com.au last month.
Australians are currently paying much more for flights than they were before the pandemic, and the raised rates are solely connected to the lack of airline staff. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has caused fuel prices to spike. And, as all travellers know – aeroplanes use a considerable amount of petrol, especially on long haul flights.
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Both Qantas and Virgin Australia have said that they are passing the extra costs of fuel onto their customers by increasing the prices of their flights. Furthermore, Qantas not only raised their prices to cover the extra costs, but they also cut down on the number of flights they have.
“Qantas will respond to the high fuel prices by reducing capacity over July and August 2022 and increasing fares,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wrote in its June airline report.
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