Cancellations of flights between Canberra and Sydney have fallen after topping the nation last year, with Qantas changing its schedule in a bid to resolve the problem.
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While cancellation rates dropped to 2 per cent on the Canberra to Sydney routes, and 1.8 per cent for the return route, Qantas confirmed it cancelled four return services on Thursday last week.
After reaching as high as 8.1 per cent in September, Canberra-Sydney cancellations have fallen every month since then but remain above the 1.5 per cent national average.
A series of operational issues caused a significantly higher level of delays and cancellations for Qantas than normal in Canberra, Hobart and some regional ports during October and November last year.
Unexpected delays with maintenance, and a shortage of crew caused largely by a diminished reserve of pilots as the airline conducted a training program, were behind the operational problems.
Qantas re-arranged its schedule to use larger aircraft but fewer flights, so that total capacity remained similar but demands on crew and aircraft were reduced.
The airline said that four return services were cancelled on Thursday last week due to engineering issues.
"This was an unusual occurrence and the majority of passengers were accommodated on flights within an hour with the longest delay being about two hours," a spokeswoman said.
Labor Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann raised the matter in parliament last week and urged the Coalition government to act.
"According to the minister, he is 'monitoring the situation' - monitoring the situation that goes from bad to worse," she said.
A spokeswoman for Infrastructure Minister Barnaby Joyce said disruptions due to cancellations were regrettable, and that the government would monitor the route, however it did not have a direct role in such matters.
Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron praised airlines for addressing cancellation rates.
"It is encouraging to see these results decline over the past few months but ultimately we would like to see Canberrans getting a level of service and reliability close to the national average," he said.
"It remains to be seen whether this trend can continue and we certainly hope that it does."
