Cancelled
1.7%
0.4 pts better than average
Ballina to Sydney
QNA → SYD · 612 km · 156 flights a month · Sydney to Ballina
On time (departures)
78.7%
national 78.2%
Flight time
1h 25m
scheduled, gate to gate
Latest month
0.6%
Jul 2026 cancelled
Airlines
3
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Jul 2026
Flights between Ballina and Sydney carried 33,225 passengers in both directions in Jun 2026, ranking 35th of the 62 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Jul 2026, 1.7% of flights from Ballina to Sydney were cancelled, below the national average of 2.1%. Which airline you fly matters: QantasLink cancelled 4.4% of its flights in this direction, 16.2× the rate of Virgin Australia at 0.3%. The route is busiest in January and quietest in June.
The route
612 km great-circle · 1h 25m typical
Punctuality by airline
12 months to Jul 2026. Qantas and QantasLink are reported separately in the source data and are shown that way here — on many routes the difference between them is large.
| Airline | Group | Flights | Cancelled | On time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jetstar | 905 | 0.6% | 81.3% | |
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 593 | 4.4% | 78.7% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 368 | 0.3% | 72.5% |
Cancellations over time
Punctuality data begins Nov 2003 and runs to Jul 2026. Gaps are months with no reported services, not missing data.
Passengers, 1994 to 2026
Traffic: to Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Ballina to Sydney and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Ballina to Sydney only.
When is this route busiest?
Average passengers by calendar month, relative to the annual average. 2020 and 2021 are excluded — those years were a structural break, not a season, and leaving them in shifts the apparent peak month on most routes. Higher months are typically the more expensive ones to fly.
Both directions combined, as published.
How long is the flight?
Scheduled flight time from Ballina to Sydney is 1h 25m gate to gate, over 612 km. The return leg is scheduled at much the same, 1h 17m.
This is scheduled block time — from leaving the gate to reaching it at the other end — not time in the air, and not a substitute for checking your own booking. It is a median across the flights currently timetabled on this leg.
Flight numbers on this route
6 flight numbers currently scheduled from Ballina to Sydney. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 1h 25m.
Scheduled every day this week — 36 departures in all.
Jetstar · 3 · Airbus A320
JQ457 · JQ459 · JQ461
Qantas · 2 · Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / DHC-8-400, De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 Dash 8Q
QF2036 · QF2038
Virgin Australia · 1 · Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-800
VA1140
Current timetable as at 2026-09-06
Timetables change; these are not a booking source and carry no punctuality figures of their own. The cancellation and on-time rates above are for the route as a whole, not for any single flight number — per-flight performance is not collected.
The route in numbers
| Busiest month on record | 71,731 · Dec 2021 |
| Pandemic low | 327 · Apr 2020 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 107.8% |
| Load factor, Jun 2026 | 82.7% |
| Aircraft trips, Jun 2026 | 286 |
| Great-circle distance | 612 km |
Traffic: to Jun 2026