– Steve Hitchen
There is not a traveler that hasn't been both frustrated and bewildered by delays or cancelations of airline flights. I have. Some were understandable (SJJ-ZAG due TX on arrival), others not so (early morning MEL-SYD flight delayed because they forgot to get the aircraft out of the hangar). And now it seems the ALP has had enough and wants to introduce mandatory compensation. But, of course, this is to be a scattergun approach that has also captured the airports, even though delays caused by airports themselves are minimal. AAA has had their say over this, and they are 100% justified in taking this position. Regionals that already walk financial tight-ropes and often have only conditional support from local government councils are going to be asked to compensate passengers for delays. Margins (if any) won't be able to absorb this, meaning regional cities will probably lose their RPT connections, and more valuable GA infrastructure will deteriorate or be lost completely. Why is this a problem when airport-driven delays are minimal? Larger airlines will be very keen to defray compensation costs, no doubt cross-attributing delays and passing on the cost to airports where they can. And with a whole new regulator being proposed to wrangle it all, there really is no avenue by which this will not drive up ticket prices. Airlines will have to consider compensation costs as a liability and account for it. This is all going to come back on the ALP in a few months time when they find themselves owning REX.
CASA's 2025 stakeholder satisfaction survey has returned a no-change in the overall satisfaction with the regulator's performance. The overall score given by the industry was 6.1/10, the same as in 2025. However, that's a bit misleading, because things have actually changed: both the "satisfied" and "dissatisfied" scores have increased, but by similar amounts that have canceled each other out. So, no change to the overall measurement. But a big one has changed: the number of people who returned the survey. In order to make sure apples aren't measured against oranges, the same number of people are asked to fill out the survey every couple of years: 6600. In 2020, 755 people responded; in 2023 683 and this year only 436. Over five years, the participation rate has dropped 5 percentage points from 11% to 5%. If it drops much more the survey won't be worth doing anymore. Ironically, the most prominent reason is the thing CASA is trying to measure: dissatisfaction. When someone stuffs you around then comes calling for help you are inclined to show them the dimensions of your middle finger. Research company WhereTo acknowledges the low response rate and admits a higher margin of error than previous surveys. So maybe the steady satisfaction level could be a misperception either way? And to finish, the survey results singled-out CASA management team as the reason for some of the satisfaction levels. They can hang their hats on that; it's a fair return for a team that has strived for genuine improvement over the past few years. Green tick.
Meanwhile, over in Roswell, New Mexico (cue X-Files theme music), Bathurst's Tam Camilleri is blasting around the pylon racing course at the US National Air Race Championships. Flying an L-29 Delfin jet, Tam is not astride the most powerful plane in the race fleet, but flew some very clean and steady lines to win her heat with a speed bordering 400 mph. That has qualified her fastest for Heat 3B, which kicks-off at 5.10 am AEST tomorrow morning. She's up against some tough competitors, including a couple of L-39 Albatros jets that have more thrust than her older Delfin. Mind you, Tam left two of those in her wake in the first heat as well, so she's out-powered, but not out-classed. Her performance is a demonstration of how clean flying increases aerodynamic efficiency, something we all need to aim for even if the stopwatch is not on us. Give 'em hell, Tam!
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch