Passengers
199,903
Melbourne to Shanghai, 12 months to May 2026
Melbourne to Shanghai
China · 343 months of data from Aug 1996 · Shanghai to Melbourne
Both directions
402,855
including Shanghai to Melbourne
Flight time
10h 35m
20m longer than the return
Load factor
83%
seats filled on this leg
Traffic: 12 months to May 2026
199,903 passengers flew Melbourne to Shanghai in the 12 months to May 2026, out of 402,855 on the route in both directions. Flights run about 83% full, much the same in both directions. This route has been reported for 29 years.
The route
Distances are true from Melbourne; the ring marks the distance to Shanghai.
How long is the flight?
Scheduled flight time from Melbourne to Shanghai is 10h 35m gate to gate, over 7,986 km. Coming back takes 10h 15m — a difference of 20m, so this direction is the slower 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
3 flight numbers currently scheduled from Melbourne to Shanghai. These are the numbers you book under.
Scheduled every day this week — 15 departures in all.
China Eastern · 2 · Boeing 787-9
MU738 · MU740
Juneyao · 1 · Boeing 787-9
HO1656
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, 1996 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 | 51,484 · Feb 2026 |
| Data coverage | Aug 1996 – May 2026 (343 months) |
| Freight, 12 months to May 2026 | 20,771 tonnes |
| Destination region | China |
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.