Flight cancellations and delays accounted for 54% of domestic travel claims in Australia between January 2016 and June 2018, highlighting the importance of taking out domestic travel insurance to avoid out-of-pocket expenses.
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines and Tigerair Australia posted the highest cancellation rates, at 2.6% during 2017-18, with Tigerair also achieving the lowest on-time arrivals, at 69.4%, according to the 2017-18 Financial Report.
“When it comes to insuring a local holiday, too many Aussies don’t bother with travel insurance,” Raphael Bandeira, managing director at InsureandGo, which produced the statistics, told Daily Mail Australia. “It will, therefore, be a surprise to them that in an 18-month period many travellers have made claims for trip delays and disruptions for local travel.”
Travel issues experienced by Australian claimants included waiting more than 12 hours for the next flight, bad weather, and other unforeseen events, as well as personal matters, including family emergencies, job redundancies, and jury duty.
A spokeswoman for Tigerair Australia said despite the airline’s commitment to delivering consistent and reliable services to customers and its constant review of its operational framework, disruptions still happen due to factors outside its control.
“Unfortunately, we do occasionally need to change services due to adverse weather, operational requirements, or other factors outside of our control,” she told the publication. “We understand that this can be frustrating for our customers and we work hard to ensure that any disruption is kept to a minimum.”
International-trip disruption claims were roughly half of the domestic disruption in Australia, with 19% of the claims for US-bound trips, 20% to Asia, and 28% to other international destinations.
