Sandy Marshall had to drive six hours at 2:00am in order to make it to her recent cruise holiday after her planned flight was cancelled — a common occurrence in her region.

Ms Marshall's home city of Armidale in the New South Wales New England region had the highest number of cancelled flights anywhere in Australia in October.

The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport monthly report found 10.2 per cent of Sydney-Armidale flights were cancelled during October, and 10 per cent were stopped on the Armidale-Sydney leg.

The same cancellation figure of 10.2% was reported on Melbourne-Sydney routes last month.

Ms Marshall, whose flight was cancelled this month, said it created a chaotic start to what should have been a relaxing holiday.

"I got a text message at 10pm the night before saying that the flight had been cancelled," she said.

"They said it was mechanical issues, which I've heard a lot of times.

"I wasn't confident that [the next flight at] lunchtime wouldn't be delayed or cancelled."

Weather delays:

Qantas and Rex Airlines ran flights between Armidale and Sydney in October, with Rex suspending their service to the region on the 28th.

The BITRE report found 16.3% of Rex's flights from Sydney to Armidale were cancelled.

QantasLink flights were cancelled at a rate of 7.7%.

While unable to give specific reasons for the Armidale-Sydney cancellations, Qantas said in a statement that there were only six days in October when weather did not cause delays and cancellations across its network.

Thunderstorms and strong winds impacted operations in Sydney, with only one runway operating on seven separate days, impacting flights across the country

Lightning strikes on aircraft led to 42 cancelled flights while shortages of air traffic controllers also caused further disruptions.

Rex was contacted by the ABC but did not respond before deadline.

Regional woes:

Senior lecturer in tourism and heritage studies, geography, tourism, and planning at Western Sydney University, Dr Garth Lean, said flight cancellations cause widespread disruption in people's lives.

"I think these things are having tremendous impacts that are hard to quantify both in financial terms, in terms of people's work that they're performing, and the reason why they're travelling," Dr Lean said.

"There's also personal costs as well."

Dr Lean experienced this firsthand when a recent flight he was scheduled to take from nearby Tamworth Airport was cancelled.

"Listening to people talking about it, it had such a big impact on their plans, their personal life," he said.

Dr Lean said there needed to be more transparency about the help that can be accessed.

A man in a black jumper:

Dr Lean said airlines do not provide enough information when cancelling flights.(Supplied: Dr Garth Lean)

"I noticed myself, when I got a notification, it encourages you to contact Qantas but there isn't any information forthcoming in that initial communication around compensation or things that you'd have access to," he said.

"People [at the airport] were unaware they could get accommodation vouchers or food vouchers. If you're not specifically told about that stuff you're not going to take advantage of it."

Further headaches:

Ms Marshall was refunded the frequent flyer points she used to pay for tickets.

However she said she was still angered by the lack of support she received in reorganising her travel plans.

"I had asked 'can I be put on the 10am flight? Can I be on a Tamworth flight? Can I get something earlier than lunchtime?' They said that there wasn't anything they can do," she said.

"We had to drive home too because it was too late to organise a hire car one way, so I had to organise parking once we were there.

"I try not to direct my anger at people that I know it's beyond their control. But I was still mad.

"I was mad that there wasn't anything they could do."

Original Story By | Peter Sanders & Jesse Hyland