Data supplied by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics show that flights between Sydney and Melbourne were plagued with below-average performances for the year to February, with 24 per cent of southbound flights and 22 per cent heading north arriving late across all airlines.

The average rate for delayed arrivals across Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Tigerair and Regional Express for all domestic services was 18 per cent for the period.

Sydney to Melbourne is the world's second busiest air route, with 60,059 aircraft trips in 2017, according to the bureau – a 12 per cent increase over five years.

Melbourne Airport expects that delays will get worse, predicting that its domestic on-time performance to fall from better than 80 per cent on most days now to as low as 60 per cent by 2022, when it hopes to have a third runway operational to ease congestion.

Sydney is meanwhile looking to ease congestion with the opening of its second airport at Badgerys Creek in 2026.

Eight of the 10 worst services in Australia for the period were operated by Tigerair, topped by its Canberra-Brisbane service which arrived late 45 per cent of the time.

A Tigerair spokeswoman said its performance had been negatively affected recently by weather, "unscheduled engineering requirements" and its fleet transition program.

The bureau defines a flight as being "on time" if it lands at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. A flight is considered cancelled if it is pulled out of service within seven days of its scheduled departure.

While touching down late, or not arriving at all, can ruin holiday plans and become costly if connecting flights or accommodation need to be re-booked, there are no defined rules dictating how or if airlines compensate their passengers for delays or cancellations.

David Adams, a solicitor specialising in aviation law at Shine Lawyers, said that unlike jurisdictions which had fixed compensation schemes in place, an airline’s terms and conditions were generally the “be all and end all” of what customers are entitled to.

“They typically contract to get you from point A to point B – but the timeframe to do that and the way they do that isn’t governed at all,” he said.

The provision of food or accommodation was “entirely at their discretion”, he said.

Mr Adams said that while he had successfully pursued compensation claims for clients who had lost significant potential earnings by missing a lucrative job interview or contract negotiation, those examples were in the minority.

“If it’s a missing connection, we normally tell the potential client that unfortunately, the law’s ruthless sometimes and it’s just not worth trying to bring a claim,” Mr Adams said.

Stefanie Menezes, a spokeswoman for the consumer group CHOICE,  said Australian airlines had been "flying below the radar" on consumer protection for years.

She said CHOICE was calling for the implementation of a fixed compensation scheme similar to those in place in the European Union, where passengers arriving more than three hours late because of an airline's fault receive compensation of between €250 ($400) and €600 ($964), depending on the length of the flight.

In New Zealand, consumers are entitled to claim compensation if the delay is the airline’s fault. Customers can claim back what they paid for missed connecting flight or tickets to events they missed, up to 10 times the value of the airfare.

"Compensation should be fair and standardised, no matter what airline you’re on or what the customer service agent decides you deserve on the day," Mrs Menezes said.

"Airlines should take responsibility for their own mistakes instead of making passengers pay for a delay."

CHOICE has been critical of the industry-funded Airline Customer Advocate – which last year failed to resolve 48 per cent of complaints it received in 2016 – and called for the establishment of an independent airline ombudsman.

But the airlines said a fixed compensation scheme was not necessary. A spokeswoman for the Virgin Australia Group said the industry was highly competitive and it was "in the interests of airlines to look after customers in order to keep them coming back".

A Qantas spokesman said that its long-term on-time arrival rate of about 90 per cent, in comparison to the US and UK "where they have a compensation scheme [and] the industry norm is as low as 70 per cent"".

Qantas’ conditions of carriage only say that if it significantly changes or cancels a flight for reasons within its control it will offer a refund, re-book customers on the next available service, pay for food and refreshments, and pay for accommodation where necessary.

The national carrier offers refunds for flights delayed by more than five hours. For events outside of its control, Qantas will “use reasonable endeavours” to re-book on the next available flight, or offer a refund.

Virgin says that if a flight is delayed and it is the airline’s fault, it will move customers to the next available flight after a two-hour wait. For delays and cancellations, both within and outside Virgin’s control, it offers customers a credit voucher for the value of the flight if they choose not to fly.

The Sydney Morning Herald