Cancelled
3.9%
1.9 pts worse than average
Canberra to Melbourne
CBR → MEL · 470 km · 369 flights a month · Melbourne to Canberra
On time (departures)
77.2%
national 78.8%
Flight time
1h 15m
scheduled, gate to gate
Latest month
3.8%
Aug 2026 cancelled
Airlines
4
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Aug 2026
Flights between Canberra and Melbourne carried 73,887 passengers in both directions in Jul 2026, ranking 17th of the 61 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Aug 2026, 3.9% of flights from Canberra to Melbourne were cancelled, well above the national average of 2.0%. In the published records for Sep 2025–Aug 2026, QantasLink recorded 6.5% cancellations across 2,524 scheduled flights, compared with Jetstar's 0.0% across 364 scheduled flights in this direction. These are observed samples, not a forecast. Traffic is still running at 75.7% of its 2019 average. The route is busiest in November and quietest in January.
The route
470 km great-circle · 1h 15m typical
Punctuality by airline
12 months to Aug 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 2,524 | 6.5% | 76.0% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 1,469 | 0.5% | 81.1% |
| Jetstar | 364 | 0.0% | 67.0% | |
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 73 | 0.0% | 86.3% |
Cancellations over time
Punctuality data begins Nov 2003 and runs to Aug 2026. Gaps are months with no reported services, not missing data.
Passengers, 1984 to 2026
Traffic: to Jul 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Canberra to Melbourne and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Canberra to Melbourne 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 Canberra to Melbourne is 1h 15m gate to gate, over 470 km. The return leg is scheduled at much the same, 1h 10m.
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
22 flight numbers currently scheduled from Canberra to Melbourne. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 1h 15m.
Scheduled every day this week — 97 departures in all.
Qantas · 15 · Airbus A220-300, Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / DHC-8-400, De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 Dash 8Q
QF1465 · QF1467 · QF1469 · QF1471 · QF1473 · QF1475 · QF1519 · QF1521 · QF1523 · QF1525 · QF1527 · QF1529 · QF1531 · QF1537 · QF901D
Virgin Australia · 6 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737, Boeing 737 MAX 8
VA252 · VA254 · VA256 · VA268 · VA274 · VA284
Jetstar · 1 · Airbus A320
JQ655
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 | 114,976 · Mar 2010 |
| Pandemic low | 644 · Sep 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 75.7% |
| Load factor, Jul 2026 | 73.0% |
| Aircraft trips, Jul 2026 | 724 |
| Great-circle distance | 470 km |
Traffic: to Jul 2026