Zeroing in on a group of 19 airlines around the world – the same one Qantas Airways Ltd uses to assess its performance against peers – Virgin Australia canceled the biggest proportion of flights in the three months through July 26, according to data from analytics company Cirium.
A supercharged rebound in bookings as Covid-19 travel restrictions ease has overwhelmed even the largest and most established names in aviation. After laying off tens of thousands of pilots, flight crew, baggage handlers and security staff during the pandemic, the industry can’t hire fast enough to keep up. Analysts say it may be months before normal levels of service return.
KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said in a statement it canceled flights for a variety of reasons, including a shortage of airport security staff. It pointed to additional measures announced last month to ease the pressure, such as scrapping flights to Europe and restricting ticket sales. “We apologize to our affected passengers,” the airline said.
Virgin Australia, which operates the fewest overseas flights among the group, said it outperformed its closest rival Qantas on flight cancellations in the five months through June, based on Australian government data that Virgin uses to benchmark its domestic performance.