Sunshine Coast certainly has a lot going for it, but its airport is not one of them.
According to research by finder.com, Sunshine Coast Airport is Australia’s worst airport, with a departure delay rate of over 31 per cent – by far the highest in the nation.
This means that one in every three flights leaving the Sunshine Coast is late, which is only great if you’re always late for your flights.
In second place was Hobart, with a delay rate of 27 per cent, or one flight every two hours.
While a delayed flight may sting, cancelled flights can really take the wind out of your sails. And anyone who has flown out of Sydney airport in the last 10 years may have experienced the behaviour for which the airport is becoming famous. That’s right, of the 21,600 cancelled flights in Australia last year, over 5000 of them were from out of Sydney, which was also the fifth most delayed airport in the country, with 20 per cent of its flights running late.
Also, in the top 10 worst airports were the Gold Coast, Launceston and Melbourne.
Travel insurance expert Bessie Hassan says that smaller airports are more likely to experience delays, because usually only one plane is flying in and out of them . She also says that it’s “important to note that an airport’s delay rate is rarely due to a lack of airport infrastructure, but instead more likely to be the result of poor weather or congestion elsewhere.”
Port Lincoln Airport was Australia’s least delayed airport (eight per cent), while Perth was the best capital city airport, with just 13 per cent of domestic flights running behind schedule.
In your experience, which is Australia’s worst airport?
