Qantas publishes report card, shows efforts to make services better

Dhaka: After failing to satisfy passengers with quality service for a while, Qantas has published its own report card to mark its effort in stepping up to make services better. Based on the performance statistics Qantas released on September 19, the airline has risen to meet the challenges.

In the first two weeks of September, the numbers of flight delays, cancelations and mishandled bags have all fallen. On-time performance has improved from 52 per cent of flights arriving or departing on time in July to 67 per cent in August and 71 per cent between September 1-14.

In not much more than a month, the odds of passengers’ flight being on time have jumped from a toss of the coin 50/50 to a seven in ten chance of hitting the schedule.

Flight cancelations have also improved significantly and are now below pre-covid levels. In June, 7.5 per cent of flights were canceled, which markedly improved in August to 4 per cent.

In the first half of this month, cancelations are just 2 per cent of scheduled flights, compared to the pre-covid rate of 2.4 per cent.

Qantas said these are often due to aircraft serviceability or crew availability, with "safety always coming before schedule."

From those figures, it is clear that the chances of your Qantas flight actually operating and then keeping to its schedule have greatly increased in the last month.

Qantas said these are at pre-Covid levels, with mishandled bags at six per 1000 passengers overall and five per 1000 passengers for domestic services, down from 12 in 1000 in April.

These figures are actually an improvement as the airline is seeing more bags being checked in per customer as traffic rebounds.

Since Covid-19 struck, almost every airport in the world has accelerated the shift to automated check-in technology.

In Australia, Qantas has rolled out 120 new technology self-service kiosks across its network, which are four times faster than the units they have replaced.

Australians are well documented as early adopters of technology, and today more than 80 per cent of Qantas customers are checking in online.

On the people side, more than 1,500 additional staff have joined the Qantas Group airlines since April. These new people have filled roles, including cabin crew, airport customer service staff and engineers.

Qantas said it is continuing to recruit more staff, also noting that their ground handling suppliers have increased their workforce by 25 per cent since April.

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