More than one in five planes departing or arriving at Wagga Airport are delayed or cancelled, new figures reveal.
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Data collected from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics has listed Wagga among the worst regional airports for flight delays.
Across all airlines, 19.4 per cent of arrivals were delayed at Wagga Airport while 16.2 per cent of departures were also delayed.
Regional Express (Rex) flights were more likely to arrive late with 22.2 per cent of flights touching down at Forest Hill behind schedule while 16.3 per cent of Qantas flights failed to arrive on time.
Rex and Qantas were equally likely experience late departures from Wagga Airport at 16.2 per cent though Rex was more likely to cancel flights entirely.
Wagga City Council commercial operations director Caroline Angel said flight delays were a “priority” but downplayed council’s ability to influence change.
“Although there are ongoing and open discussions with individual airlines to identify areas where council can provide assistance to improve overall on-time performance, the primary factors are completely outside the scope of influence of council,” she said.
“Council considers on time performance to be a priority and through the Airport Advisory Committee Council will be working with the Airlines to minimize delays to and from Wagga.”
Ms Angel said the Airport Advisory Committee had met to discuss potential improvements
“The Airport Advisory Committee has met and discussed improvements in the infrastructure in the provision of a parallel taxiway capable of carrying RPT Aircraft that are operated by QANTAS and REX, this item is still under discussion,” she said.
“Many of the delays are experienced in the Airlines network and not attributed to Wagga Wagga Airport configuration or operation.
“On very rare occasions when council has had to undertake maintenance or repairs on the pavement surfaces, we have coordinated with the Airlines to ensure that parking bays are available and there is minimal disruption to services.”
Rex did not provide a responding statement.