Cancelled
0.8%
1.3 pts better than average
Melbourne to Perth
MEL → PER · 2,706 km · 524 flights a month · Perth to Melbourne
On time (departures)
74.6%
national 78.2%
Flight time
4h 15m
40m longer than the return
Latest month
0.2%
Jul 2026 cancelled
Airlines
3
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Jul 2026
Flights between Melbourne and Perth carried 148,647 passengers in both directions in Jun 2026, ranking 7th of the 62 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Jul 2026, 0.8% of flights from Melbourne to Perth were cancelled, well below the national average of 2.1%. Direction matters here: Perth→Melbourne departs on time 80.0% of the time against 74.6% coming back. The route is busiest in December and quietest in February.
The route
2,706 km great-circle · 4h 15m 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 2,739 | 0.7% | 72.6% |
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 2,552 | 0.9% | 81.2% |
| Jetstar | 997 | 1.1% | 63.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perth → Melbourne | 80.0% | 1.1% | 6,435 |
| Melbourne → Perth | 74.6% | 0.8% | 6,288 |
A 5.4 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, 1984 to 2026
Traffic: to Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Melbourne to Perth and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Melbourne to Perth 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 Melbourne to Perth is 4h 15m gate to gate, over 2,706 km. The return leg is scheduled at 3h 35m — the two directions differ by 40m, so this way round is the slower one.
A gap that size is normally the wind. Australia sits under strong westerly winds aloft, so eastbound flights ride them and westbound flights push into them — the same aircraft, the same distance, a different flight duration each way.
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
21 flight numbers currently scheduled from Melbourne to Perth. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 4h 15m.
Scheduled every day this week — 129 departures in all.
Virgin Australia · 9 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737, Boeing 737 MAX 8
VA675 · VA677 · VA681 · VA687 · VA691 · VA695 · VA697 · VA699 · VA703
Qantas · 8 · Boeing 737-800, Airbus A330-200
QF761 · QF763 · QF765 · QF767 · QF769 · QF773 · QF775 · QF777
Jetstar · 4 · Airbus A320, Airbus A321 NEO, Airbus A321
JQ968 · JQ970 · JQ972 · JQ974
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 | 201,143 · Jul 2013 |
| Pandemic low | 1,717 · Oct 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 95.4% |
| Load factor, Jun 2026 | 83.1% |
| Aircraft trips, Jun 2026 | 1,076 |
| Great-circle distance | 2,706 km |
Traffic: to Jun 2026