ALMOST one in five QantasLink flights touching down at Wagga Airport are delayed.
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Qantas passengers departing the airport are also left waiting with nearly one in seven flights behind schedule.
Across all airlines, 13.8 per cent of arrivals were delayed at Wagga Airport during February while 11.8 per cent of departures failed to take off on time according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
It was also revealed that 10.2 per cent of Regional Express (Rex) flights arrived behind schedule while 9.3 per cent did not depart on time.
In comparison to February last year, Qantas has failed to improve its performance with 4.7 per cent more flights arriving late. The airline, however, has slightly reduced its delays by 1.2 per cent for planes departing the airport.
Rex has managed to reduced its arrival and departure delays since February last year.
Frequent-flyer Tim Rose normally flies 46 weeks out of the 52 for business.
"It is a frustrating process. Flights rarely leave or arrive on time at Wagga airport," he said.
"About 30 to 40 per cent of my flights are on time with a built in delay by the airlines, 40 per cent are delayed up to a half hour, and the rest are delayed over a half hour."
Mr Rose usually flies Qantas, but he said both airlines are affected by delays.
He said the problem was partly due to limited bays for regional airlines at Sydney Airport.
"Sydney planes travelling to and from Wagga are parked out the back and passengers have to catch a bus to the plane which causes the delay," he said.
"We need more direct flights from Wagga to other capital cities."
Both Qantas and Rex airlines refused to comment.
A NSW TrainLink spokeswoman said Wagga train passengers travelling to and from Wagga could face delays due to the service operating on the main line between Sydney and Melbourne.
The spokeswoman said the rail line was one of the busiest mixed freight corridors in Australia and speed restrictions, along with the impact of freight trains and weather conditions are problems causing trains to operate behind schedule.
"We continue to constantly review the reasons for delays and work closely with our partners, such as the network operator and the fleet maintainer, to keep our services to timetable as much as possible," the spokeswoman said.
"The state government has announced the purchase of new fleet to replace the ageing XPT fleet, which is due in 2023 and is expected to improve the reliability performance of trains on the Sydney to Melbourne line."
The spokeswoman, however, could not provide the performance figures for Wagga trains and bus services.
She said patronage on the Wagga to Albury bus service has increased steadily with more customers becoming aware that they could travel between cities and return on the same day.
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