Tiger Airways has again been taken the dubious honour of the least punctual domestic airline in Australia with more than one in four flights departing late in May.

Figures released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed Tiger services departed late 26% of the time, and arrived late 27% of the time compared to an industry average of 16% and 17.4% respectively.

To add to their woes, Tiger also had the worst cancellation rate with 3.5% of their flights not taking to the air.

Qantas and Virgin were the best performed domestic airlines.

Meanwhile, with one month left of the financial year to go, Cairns airport looks set to exceed 2010 visitor numbers.

Domestic arrivals hit 122,978 in May, up from 115,433 in 2010, while international numbers also increased marginally to 23,062.

Year to date figures showed domestic arrivals up 90,175 on last year's figures to 1,459,183 while international arrivals are up 50,096 to 304,123.