Passengers
142,012
Melbourne to Queenstown, 12 months to May 2026
Melbourne to Queenstown
New Zealand · 232 months of data from Jul 1999 · Queenstown to Melbourne
Both directions
280,206
including Queenstown to Melbourne
Flight time
3h 10m
15m shorter than the return
Load factor
86%
seats filled on this leg
Traffic: 12 months to May 2026
142,012 passengers flew Melbourne to Queenstown in the 12 months to May 2026, out of 280,206 on the route in both directions. Flights run about 86% full, much the same in both directions.
The route
Distances are true from Melbourne; the ring marks the distance to Queenstown.
How long is the flight?
Scheduled flight time from Melbourne to Queenstown is 3h 10m gate to gate, over 2,150 km. Coming back takes 3h 25m — a difference of 15m, so this direction is the quicker one.
Scheduled block time — gate to gate, not time in the air — taken from the current timetable for this leg. Long-haul flights are often timetabled differently in each direction because of winds aloft, so the return is not always the same length. Check your own booking for the flight you are taking.
Flight numbers on this route
5 flight numbers currently scheduled from Melbourne to Queenstown. These are the numbers you book under.
Scheduled every day this week — 21 departures in all.
Qantas · 2 · Boeing 737-800, Airbus A320
QF177 · QF229
Jetstar · 1 · Airbus A320, Airbus A320 NEO
JQ219
Air New Zealand · 1 · Airbus A320 NEO
NZ264
Virgin Australia · 1 · Boeing 737, Boeing 737-800
VA147
Current timetable as at 2026-09-06
Timetables change, and these carry no punctuality figures of their own — no on-time data is published for international flights at all. The passenger and load factor figures above cover the route, not any single flight number.
Passengers, 1999 to 2026
To May 2026 · Marks show industry events
How full were the flights?
Inbound load factor, read as a floor rather than an exact figure. Some flights on this pair also carried passengers to and from other cities, and their seats cannot be split between those journeys. Dividing by every seat on every aircraft that touched the route gives the lowest the true figure can be, so actual occupancy is at or above the line. Seat data begins in 2009, so this series is shorter than the passenger chart above.
Load factor: seats data from 2009
When is this route busiest?
Average passengers by calendar month over the last ten years, relative to the annual average.
Freight
Tonnes of air freight carried on this route — a dimension the domestic data does not have at all.
To May 2026
The route in numbers
| Busiest month on record | 33,373 · Jan 2025 |
| Data coverage | Jul 1999 – May 2026 (232 months) |
| Freight, 12 months to May 2026 | 8 tonnes |
| Destination region | New Zealand |
No punctuality data is published for international services, so there are no cancellation or on-time figures on this page. That series covers domestic routes only.