Virgin Australia recorded the strongest operational performance among Australia’s major airlines in January, leading the industry for both on-time departures and flight completion, according to new figures released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE).
The government data, based on scheduled domestic services, shows the airline achieved an 82.7 per cent on-time departure rate during the month — an increase of 8.2 percentage points compared with December.
Virgin Australia also maintained a 99.1 per cent completion rate, meaning fewer than one per cent of scheduled domestic flights were cancelled during the peak summer travel period.
The performance follows the carrier posting the highest average completion rate among major Australian airlines across 2025.
Virgin Australia chief executive Dave Emerson said the results reflected operational consistency during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
“Summer is one of the most important times of the year for our guests. Millions of travellers rely on us to reconnect with loved ones or take a well-earned break,” Mr Emerson said.
He said leading the industry in both on-time departures and cancellations demonstrated the efforts of staff across the airline’s operations.
BITRE monthly airline statistics are widely used to compare reliability across Australia’s domestic aviation sector.
Over the past 12 months, Virgin Australia reported an average completion rate of 98.3 per cent and an average departure on-time performance of 77.6 per cent across its domestic network.
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