That’s according to the newly released data from the Department of Infrastructure and Transport encompassing 58 airports across Australia.

Almost one in three flights to and from Sydney were delayed by more than 15 minutes last month.

Sydney commuter Naomi Fraser said those statistics paint a poor picture of what she believes to be an efficient service.

At least once a month, the former local travels from her home in Sydney to Port Macquarie on business as a wealth manager for Macquarie Bank.

During that time, Ms Fraser said, she’s had no problems with being on time.

“The statistics actually really surprise me,” she said yesterday.

“I fly up here a lot and I’ve never had any delays that I’ve noticed.

“The 33-year-old’s confidence in the service is reflected in her meeting schedules – which often take place soon after she lands.

“If there was significant delays I would have to arrive the day before,” she said.

“But it’s never even crossed my mind that there would be a problem.”

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s director of commercial services and industry engagement, Craig Swift- McNair, said it wasn’t a problem with the running of the airport.

He said adherence to scheduled arrival times were an issue for the individual operators to manage and not something that could be impacted directly through the current airport upgrade works.

Virgin and Qantas Link currently service flights to and from Sydney out of Port Macquarie.

For the month of April, the data showed Qantas Link recorded 65.4 per cent of on time departures compared to 71.4 per cent of on time arrivals.

Virgin Australia (ATR/F100 Operations) seemed to get people in the air quicker, with 81.4 per cent of departures being on time while just 68.3 per cent of their arrivals made it to Port Macquarie as scheduled.

On average, there is a 70.5 per cent on time arrival rate for Port Macquarie airport.

In comparison, at Karratha Airport 94.9 per cent of their flights arrived on time.

Editorial, Hot topic – page 12