Cancelled
1.2%
0.8 pts better than average
Gold Coast to Melbourne
MEL → OOL · 1,330 km · 525 flights a month · Melbourne to Gold Coast
On time (departures)
70.4%
national 78.8%
Flight time
2h 25m
20m longer than the return
Latest month
0.2%
Aug 2026 cancelled
Airlines
4
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Aug 2026
Flights between Gold Coast and Melbourne carried 192,878 passengers in both directions in Jul 2026, ranking 6th of the 61 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Aug 2026, 1.2% of flights from Gold Coast to Melbourne were cancelled, below the national average of 2.0%. In the published records for Sep 2025–Aug 2026, Jetstar recorded 2.4% cancellations across 2,458 scheduled flights, compared with Qantas's 0.0% across 395 scheduled flights in this direction. These are observed samples, not a forecast. Direction matters here: Melbourne→Gold Coast departs on time 75.1% of the time against 70.4% coming back. The route is busiest in January and quietest in February.
The route
1,330 km great-circle · 2h 25m 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 3,009 | 0.3% | 67.7% |
| Jetstar | 2,458 | 2.4% | 74.0% | |
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 439 | 1.8% | 66.6% |
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 395 | 0.0% | 72.9% |
Does the direction matter?
On this route it does. Delays build up through the day, so the aircraft flying the return leg is often already behind schedule. Cancellations, by contrast, usually take out both legs — which is why those figures barely differ.
| Direction | On time | Cancelled | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Coast → Melbourne | 70.4% | 1.2% | 6,301 |
| Melbourne → Gold Coast | 75.1% | 1.0% | 6,297 |
A 4.7 point gap in on-time departures · 12 months to Aug 2026
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 — Gold Coast to Melbourne and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast to Melbourne is 2h 25m gate to gate, over 1,330 km. The return leg is scheduled at 2h 5m — the two directions differ by 20m, so this way round is the slower one.
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
25 flight numbers currently scheduled from Gold Coast to Melbourne. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 2h 25m.
Scheduled every day this week — 107 departures in all.
Qantas · 9 · Airbus A220-300, Airbus A320 (Sharklets), Airbus A321, Airbus A320
QF1571 · QF1573 · QF1575 · QF5435 · QF5437 · QF5441 · QF5445 · QF5449 · QF5451
Jetstar · 8 · Airbus A320, Airbus A320 (Sharklets), Airbus A321, Airbus A321-200 (Sharklets)
JQ431 · JQ433 · JQ435 · JQ437 · JQ441 · JQ445 · JQ449 · JQ451
Virgin Australia · 8 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737, Boeing 737 MAX 8
VA726 · VA736 · VA738 · VA740 · VA742 · VA744 · VA746 · VA750
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 | 231,543 · Jan 2025 |
| Pandemic low | 44,449 · Jun 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 101.9% |
| Load factor, Jul 2026 | 91.8% |
| Aircraft trips, Jul 2026 | 1,148 |
| Great-circle distance | 1,330 km |
Traffic: to Jul 2026