Cancelled
0.7%
1.4 pts better than average
Hamilton Island to Sydney
HTI → SYD · 1,526 km · 64 flights a month · Sydney to Hamilton Island
On time (departures)
56.1%
national 78.2%
Flight time
2h 20m
15m shorter than the return
Latest month
1.5%
Jul 2026 cancelled
Airlines
3
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Jul 2026
Flights between Hamilton Island and Sydney carried 13,771 passengers in both directions in Jun 2026, ranking 50th of the 62 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Jul 2026, 0.7% of flights from Hamilton Island to Sydney were cancelled, well below the national average of 2.1%. Direction matters here: Sydney→Hamilton Island departs on time 78.1% of the time against 56.1% coming back. The route is busiest in October and quietest in June.
The route
1,526 km great-circle · 2h 20m 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 390 | 0.5% | 61.3% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 334 | 0.9% | 48.3% |
| Jetstar | 49 | 0.0% | 67.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton Island → Sydney | 56.1% | 0.7% | 773 |
| Sydney → Hamilton Island | 78.1% | 0.7% | 773 |
A 22 point gap in on-time departures · 12 months to Jul 2026
Cancellations over time
Punctuality data begins Nov 2003 and runs to Jul 2026. Gaps are months with no reported services, not missing data.
Passengers, 2009 to 2026
Traffic: to Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Hamilton Island to Sydney and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Hamilton Island 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 Hamilton Island to Sydney is 2h 20m gate to gate, over 1,526 km. The return leg is scheduled at 2h 35m — the two directions differ by 15m, so this way round is the quicker 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
2 flight numbers currently scheduled from Hamilton Island to Sydney. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 2h 20m.
Scheduled every day this week — 13 departures in all.
Qantas · 1 · Boeing 737-800
QF579
Virgin Australia · 1 · Boeing 737-800
VA1282
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 | 27,248 · Jan 2017 |
| Pandemic low | 11,840 · Mar 2020 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 90.9% |
| Load factor, Jun 2026 | 84.5% |
| Aircraft trips, Jun 2026 | 94 |
| Great-circle distance | 1,526 km |
Traffic: to Jun 2026