AIRLINES have been told to lift their game after new figures revealed one in four flights to and from Cairns Airport are late.

Tourism bosses say the plunge in punctuality – four years ago only about 10 per cent were not on time – could not come at a worse time with the industry already suffering image problems.

Tourism Minister Desley Boyle will seek a meeting with airline chiefs in a bid to pull them into line.

"Tourism is essential to Cairns and anything that jeopardises a tourist’s experience is unacceptable," Ms Boyle told The Cairns Post.

Official government aviation statistics for June reveal 28 per cent of arrivals into Cairns are late. About 25 per cent of departures did not leave on time.

Jetstar was the worst performing across both arrivals and departures, followed by Qantas and then Virgin Blue.

Only 35 per cent of Qantas flights to Melbourne left on time and 56 per cent of Jetstar services from Brisbane landed as scheduled.

The overall Cairns figures are worse than the Gold Coast and on par with Brisbane.

The Cairns Post observed at least four late domestic flights within a matter of 20 minutes last Wednesday.

observed at least four late domestic flights within a matter of 20 minutes last Wednesday.

Melbourne travellers Jane McCasker, Tavish Makin and Raelee Meyers were not impressed when their Jetstar flight arrived 20 minutes late.

"Qantas is always late," Ms Meyers said.

"All my friends who fly for business are always late because of flights."

Ms McCasker added: "It’s hard to tell which end it is from. But if I was working and late, I would not be impressed."

Gary Pockett, of Tully, said he had to wait more than half an hour longer than expected for his grandmother and mother to arrive on their Virgin Blue flight from Sydney.

"It’s just lucky we don’t have much of an itinerary," he said.

Cairns Ports would not comment on the figures because it was the airlines’ responsibility to ensure flights arrived on time.

A local cabbie, who did not want to be named, said late arrivals ruined schedules for business and customers.

He said in the past fortnight he had to deal with five angry customers who had endured delays of more than two hours.

"It is a pain," the cabbie said.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland group director of marketing David Rose said a further blow-out of flights could impact on ourism timetables.

Ms Boyle said she had offered to a host a meeting with Cairns Ports, Aviation Services and Tourism Tropical North Queensland that will "look at fixing situations such as this".

Qantas did not respond to calls.

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