The federal government says it won't intervene over ongoing higher than average flight cancellations between Canberra and Sydney, rejecting calls for a national taskforce to address complaints from stranded passengers.
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Cancellations remained three times worse than industry standards on the route in October, with Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development statistics showing Canberra to Sydney topped the nation for cancellations in September, at 8.1 per cent.
The number of cancellations and delays are far higher than the national long-term cancellation rate of 1.4 per cent.
October data showed Qantas cancelled 8.8 per cent of its flights, impacting as many as 6000 people travelling on the route.
Virgin Australia cancelled 2 per cent of its flights in the period, while the overall cancellation rate was 6.6 per cent.
Nationally cancellations were highest on the Mount Isa to Brisbane route at 10.7 per cent last month, but between Sydney and Canberra 5.9 per cent of flights were cancelled.
The figure includes 7.7 per cent of flights by Qantas subsidiary Qantas Link and 2 per cent by Virgin.
Qantas Link has reduced the number of flights it operates to help address the cancellations.
Canberra Airport boss Stephen Byron says passengers are being slugged by repeated cancellations, calling on Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to take action.
Mr Byron said passengers paid premium prices for flights to and from Canberra and reliable service was absent on the route.
Mr Chester said the Coalition government was seeking answers about the higher than usual rates of cancellations but federal intervention wasn't warranted.
"The Australian government has been liaising with airlines about the recent decline in reliability and is closely monitoring recent on time performance statistics," Mr Chester said.
"Clearly, it is in the interest of airlines to operate their flights on time and I understand airlines are taking action to improve performance, including adjustments to scheduling and network operations.
"On time performance is expected to improve in coming months, and while a taskforce is not currently considered necessary, the government will continue to monitor the situation."
Qantas is working to reduce its share of cancellations, and working to be seen to be taking action.
Last week, Qantas Link chief operating officer Jenny Chamberlain said the higher cancellation and delay rates were disappointing and fell well below the company's standards.
Qantas has adjusted some of its domestic flights to improve reliability into Canberra, using more 737s instead of smaller 717 aircraft and adding about 60 seats on every flight.
The company says cancellations from Canberra are about 4 per cent this month, down from 7.2 per cent in October, while inbound flights are about 4.5 per cent, down from 6.7 per cent.
Passengers left stranded in airports including Sydney and Canberra have used social media to vent frustrations, including some who say they are impacted by poor reliability regularly.
