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Qantas' performance has improved over September with the company recording a drop in flight delays, cancellations and lost baggage after months of airport chaos.

In a statement released today the national carrier said cancellations have reduced to two per cent from the four per cent and 7.5 per cent seen over August and June respectively.

More flights have also been arriving on time. 

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"On time performance has improved from 52 per cent of flights on time in July, to 67 per cent in August and 71 per cent from 1-14 September," the statement said.

"Mishandled bags are at 6 per 1000 passengers overall and at 5 per 1000 for domestic – which is at pre-COVID levels."

Qantas attributed "several factors" behind its improvement; one being an increase in staff numbers.

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More than 1500 additional staff have joined the airline since April including cabin crew, airport customer service staff, and engineers.

However the company conceded coming weeks will prove to be a challenging time amid high demand.

"Performance will be tested in coming weeks with school holidays, long weekends and football finals driving high levels of demand at peak times," it said.

"Customers are encouraged to arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time for domestic flights and three hours ahead for international flights."

READ MORE: Fishermen film 'incredibly rare experience' with two ancient sharks



Three fishermen have filmed an incredible encounter with two extremely rare deep sea sharks, nearly 50 kilometres off the US coast.

Val Costescu was fishing with his mates, Andrew Chang and David Stabile, off San Diego in California last Sunday when two shapes approached their boat from the blue.

The trio grabbed their cameras and filmed the encounter, not realising the beasts were megamouth sharks – an elusive deep sea shark.

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"We didn't know what the sharks were at first," Costescu told 9News.com.au.

"As soon as we got the species confirmed we were shocked to learn that we had an incredibly rare experience.

"It was crazy."

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Megamouth sharks were first discovered in 1976, by a US navy research vessel operating in Hawaii.

As such, not much is known about the species.

It's believed the animals can dive to depths of 1000 metres – maybe even deeper – and live up too 100 years.

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Only one megamouth shark has ever been reported in Australia.

It washed up in Mandurah, WA in 1988.