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Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully has issued another apology to customers whose travel has been disrupted by ongoing performance delays at the airline.
Qantas’ budget carrier has come under fire recently for continued disruptions in service. Tully on Monday said the airline had been affected by unique supply chain issues that had prevented it from returning to pre-COVID on-time performance metrics.
Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“I’d like to apologise to the customers we’ve let down. We haven’t been up to scratch, and we admit that. We’re doing a lot of work to make it better. There’s been a lot of issues including some unique supply chain problems for Jetstar,” Tully said at a press conference with Qantas boss Alan Joyce to farewell the carrier’s first 717.
New data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics show more than 40 per cent of Jetstar’s arrivals and departures were delayed in April and nearly 600 flights (8 per cent) had been cancelled. Jetstar recently announced it would push forward its check-in and gate closures to improve performance from last week. Tully said the changes had already delivered an improvement in on-time performance.
One of Jetstar’s biggest problems is it does not have enough exhaust auxiliary power units. This critical part, known as an APU, powers an aircraft when the engines are down.
“In February, we had 3800 delay minutes associated with that part. There’s a shortage of parts and the repair shop was still getting going. Pre-COVID-19, that was about 380 minutes, which contributes to about 5 per cent or more of our on-time performance,” Tully said.
An Airbus A220 in production. Qantas will replace its fleet of 20 717s with the A220s.Credit: Bloomberg Businessweek
The executives on Monday farewelled the first Boeing 717 to be registered in Australia, after 18 years of service. The aircraft carried more than 1.6 million customers and completed more than 29,000 flights for Qantas and Jetstar. Qantas’s fleet of 20 717s will be replaced by Airbus A220s as part of Project Winton, which will refresh its international and domestic arms. The first A220 is due to arrive this year and the first of 20 A321 XLRs are expected to arrive in late 2024.
Joyce revealed Qantas has sold the 717s to a North American carrier but would not confirm which one.