The airline route with the WORST cancellation rate in Australia - and where planes are most likely to be running late

The news a flight route out of regional NSW was the worst performer in October was no surprise to people who have to drive six hours when the unreliable service fails. 

The latest Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) report found 10 per cent of Armidale to Sydney flights were cancelled, and 10.2 per cent abandoned on the return trip. 

The carriers flying the route were Qantas and Rex, with an astonishing 16.3 per cent of the latter's flights cancelled and 7.7 per cent of QantasLink trips scrapped. 

The report also revealed a flight route between Sydney and a Queensland holiday island had the least number of flights arriving on time.

News of the flight route between Sydney and Armidale being one of the most unreliable was no shock to Sandy Marshall, who recently had to leave her Armidale home at 2am to drive six hours to Sydney to get to her cruise holiday on time.  

'I got a text message at 10pm the night before saying that the flight had been cancelled,' she told the ABC about her mad scramble to make it to Sydney on time.

She was told the cancellation was due to 'mechanical issues', but she has heard that excuse many times before. 

A Qantas spokesperson said there were just six days in October when weather did not cause delays and cancellations for the airline.

'About 75 per cent of the Qantas domestic fleet passes through Sydney each day en-route to-or-from somewhere else,' they said.

'Sydney Airport has some unique limitations that impact recovery including legislative movement caps and the curfew.

'If slots are lost due to weather it is difficult to recoup these as the day goes on due to the hourly cap.'

Daily Mail Australia contacted Rex for comment but had not heard back by deadline. 

Ms Marshall got back the frequent flyer points she used to buy tickets for the cancelled flight, but is still furious at the airline's seeming lack of care.

When she found out her flight was cancelled she asked if she could get a flight from Tamworth - 110km from Armidale - to Sydney instead.

But she was told there was nothing the airline could do. 

Making matters worse, she had to drive back from Sydney Airport after her holiday too as it was too late to book a hire car, so she drove her own vehicle. 

This meant she also had to pay for parking in Sydney for while she was away.  

'We had to drive home too because it was too late to organise a hire car one way, so I had to organise parking once we were there.

'I try not to direct my anger at people that I know it's beyond their control. But I was still mad,' Ms Marshall said. 

'I was mad that there wasn't anything they could do.'

The BITRE report found the Townsville-Cairns route had the highest per cent of on time arrivals with the figure sitting at 92.4 per cent.

The route also had the highest percentage of on time departures at 92.4 per cent. 

The Hamilton Island-Sydney route had the lowest per cent of on time arrivals with only 46.9 per cent of flights making it at the designated time.

The Cairns-Melbourne route had the lowest per cent of on time departures at 40.4 per cent. 

Qantas was rated the least reliable domestic airline in Australia in October.

It not only performed worse than Virgin and regional carried Rex over the month, it also ranked lower than its budget sister airline Jetstar.

The report found Qantas cancelled 4.3 per cent of its flights across in October, more than Jetstar and Virgin Australia at 4.1 per cent, while Rex cancelled 2.3 per cent of flights overall. 

When flights weren't cancelled, about two thirds of Qantas planes arrived or departed within 15 minutes of its expected time - well behind the other major and rural airlines. 

The BITRE report is yet another blow for the embattled airline.

Qantas was found to have illegally outsourced 1,683 ground workers' jobs in 2020, in a decision upheld by the High Court.

In August, recently-departed Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was grilled at a Senate hearing where it was found the airline owed customers $370million in flight credits and planned to cancel them in October. 

Qantas later moved the cut-off date to the end of this year.

In the September, Mr Joyce, who oversaw the myriad scandals plaguing the airline left the company with a golden handshake estimated to be about $24million.