Tiger Airways has been given the unwanted honour of having the worst on time performance of all the major domestic airlines during July.

Tiger, who begins flying to and from Cairns next month, recorded an on time departure rate of 72.2% meaning that more than a quarter of its flights arrived late during July.

These latest figures continue Tiger's slide in this area, with its punctuality rate spiralling downward (probably not a good term to use in an article about planes) every month apart from one since the start of the year.

In better news for the airline, its cancellation rate has also dropped and now stands at less than 2% of its flights since January.

Qantas was again the most reliable with 82.8% of the carrier’s flights departing on time for the month, followed by its low cost carrier, Jetstar with 82.7% and Virgin Blue at 76.1%.