Australian airlines cancelled 4,000 flights in January

Omicron cases hit their peak, Australian Aviation can reveal. According to new data released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), around 12 per cent of all scheduled flights in January were ultimately cancelled, just as airlines began to increase domestic capacity following eased border restrictions. According to BITRE, just over 35,000 flights were scheduled to take off in January, of which 4,150 were ultimately cancelled. Comparatively, a similar number of flights were also scheduled in December, with just 2,659 ultimately cancelled, or 7.6%. The report states that flight cancellations were highest on the Sydney-Melbourne route, with 24.5% of all flights on this route cancelled over the month, followed by the Melbourne-Sydney route at 24.4%. Brisbane-Sydney saw the third highest cancellation rate at 23.7%, then Sydney-Brisbane at 23.4% and the Canberra-Sydney route at 20.1%.<br/>