Cancelled
1.1%
1.0 pts better than average
Mount Isa to Brisbane
ISA → BNE · 1,573 km · 72 flights a month · Brisbane to Mount Isa
On time (departures)
83.5%
national 78.2%
Flight time
2h 15m
30m shorter than the return
Latest month
0.0%
Jul 2026 cancelled
Airlines
3
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Jul 2026
Flights between Mount Isa and Brisbane carried 13,271 passengers in both directions in Jun 2026, ranking 53rd of the 62 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Jul 2026, 1.1% of flights from Mount Isa to Brisbane were cancelled, well below the national average of 2.1%. Direction matters here: Brisbane→Mount Isa departs on time 92.0% of the time against 83.5% coming back. The route is busiest in August and quietest in February.
The route
1,573 km great-circle · 2h 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 476 | 1.1% | 84.5% |
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 221 | 0.9% | 84.0% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 161 | 1.2% | 79.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Isa → Brisbane | 83.5% | 1.1% | 858 |
| Brisbane → Mount Isa | 92.0% | 0.5% | 855 |
A 8.5 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, 2012 to 2026
Traffic: to Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Mount Isa to Brisbane and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Mount Isa to Brisbane 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 Mount Isa to Brisbane is 2h 15m gate to gate, over 1,573 km. The return leg is scheduled at 2h 45m — the two directions differ by 30m, so this way round is the quicker 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
8 flight numbers currently scheduled from Mount Isa to Brisbane. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 2h 15m.
Scheduled every day this week — 16 departures in all.
Qantas · 6 · Embraer 190, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-800 (winglets)
QF851 · QF853 · QF1851 · QF1859 · QF1873 · QF1895
Virgin Australia · 2 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-800 (winglets)
VA1272 · VA1274
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 | 15,929 · Oct 2012 |
| Pandemic low | 8,640 · Jul 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 101.8% |
| Load factor, Jun 2026 | 62.3% |
| Aircraft trips, Jun 2026 | 180 |
| Great-circle distance | 1,573 km |
Traffic: to Jun 2026