The arrivals record at Brisbane Airport during the evening peak has improved since the start of the Brisbane Late Again campaign. Source: The Courier-Mail
THE proportion of aircraft landing on time at Brisbane Airport during the evening peak has more than doubled since The Courier-Mail's Brisbane Late Again campaign began.
And airport chiefs are promising more improvements in coming months as a slate of measures are rolled out to maximise efficiency.
"Everyone knows what needs to be done and they are getting on with it," Brisbane Airport Corporation chairman Bill Grant said.
"It is the number one priority."
COMMENT: Second runway the key to success
The campaign was launched on March 4, prompted by chronic delays that earned Brisbane the record as the country's worst-performing major airport for on-schedule flights.
This was compounded by a threat to halt work on the new parallel runway in a dispute with airlines over funding.
The campaign highlighted the delays and called for immediate solutions to the congestion and a commitment by BAC to complete the new runway by the 2020 target date.
Have you been delayed? Share your story on Twitter at #bnelateagain or email cmonline@qnp.newsltd.com.au
Date/Time: 2013:05:06 20:05:56
In the week before the campaign began, only 32 per cent of aircraft landed on time between 5pm and 8pm on weekdays.
A quarter were between 30 and 44 minutes late and one in six flights touched down at least 45 minutes late.
The re-opening of the small cross-runway in mid-March, after six months closure for the first phase of preliminary works for the proposed new runway, nudged up the performance to 47 per cent on time.
By last week, 70 per cent of aircraft into Brisbane were early or on-time between 5pm and 8pm.
Most late flights now make it within 15 minutes of schedule, with one in 20 more than 45 minutes late.
Performance during the rest of the day has also improved.
Official Federal Government data for February revealed Brisbane's worst-ever results with 74.4 per cent of flights departing on time and only 61.5 per cent of arrivals on time.
Weekday data gathered by the Flightstats.com website - which monitors airports worldwide - shows 81.3 per cent of aircraft now take off on schedule and 73.5 per cent of flights land on time.
A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said: "We have seen an improvement in April. The operating conditions in terms of weather have improved."
Qantas was not available for comment.
Comments from passengers on the #bnelateagain Twitter hashtag show the situation is still far from perfect.
"QF536 from SYD, about 20 minutes late, two laps over the GC," Michael Lyton tweeted on Friday, while Sophie Benjamin lamented: "I don't know why I thought I'd be immune to the clutches of #bnelateagain. 30 min delay & counting" and Sam Jones said: "23 min late arrival ex Proserpine".
A Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman said better weather and fewer diversions from the Sunshine and Gold Coast airports had helped, along with growing effectiveness of a runway slot management system introduced last October and the Metron traffic flow system implemented by Airservices Australia.
The return of the cross-runway and opening of new taxiway and apron sections at both domestic and international terminals also assisted.
Paul Bredereck, an executive with new charter airline Jetgo Australia, says there is no doubt the public pressure generated by the #bnelateagain campaign helped get things moving.
"There were some operational changes that were able to be made, which were reasonably well-known in industry, which were not being made," he said.
"As a result of increased awareness facilitated by The Courier-Mail, there has been a greater will by the parties to enable these initiatives to be implemented."
Airservices, which runs air traffic control, has released a 23-point strategic plan, backed by BAC, to boost capacity and reduce delays.
Phase one of the new runway is due to finish in early June and BAC says an agreement from airlines to pre-fund a quarter of the $1.3 billion cost is essential before it can go ahead with the next stage.
But negotiations are deadlocked and BAC has indicated it will refer the dispute to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission if the stalemate continues until the middle of this year.
