Cancelled
1.4%
0.5 pts better than average
Perth to Sydney
PER → SYD · 3,284 km · 437 flights a month · Sydney to Perth
On time (departures)
74.7%
national 78.8%
Flight time
4h 5m
1h shorter than the return
Latest month
0.5%
Aug 2026 cancelled
Airlines
3
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Aug 2026
Flights between Perth and Sydney carried 145,762 passengers in both directions in Jul 2026, ranking 9th of the 61 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Aug 2026, 1.4% of flights from Perth to Sydney were cancelled, below the national average of 2.0%. In the published records for Sep 2025–Aug 2026, Jetstar recorded 3.5% cancellations across 689 scheduled flights, compared with Virgin Australia's 0.9% across 2,072 scheduled flights in this direction. These are observed samples, not a forecast. The route is busiest in December and quietest in February.
The route
3,284 km great-circle · 4h 5m typical
Punctuality by airline
12 months to Aug 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 | 2,479 | 1.3% | 73.0% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 2,072 | 0.9% | 81.3% |
| Jetstar | 689 | 3.5% | 60.5% |
Cancellations over time
Punctuality data begins Nov 2003 and runs to Aug 2026. Gaps are months with no reported services, not missing data.
Passengers, 1984 to 2026
Traffic: to Jul 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Perth to Sydney and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Perth 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 Perth to Sydney is 4h 5m gate to gate, over 3,284 km. The return leg is scheduled at 5h 5m — the two directions differ by 1h, 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
17 flight numbers currently scheduled from Perth to Sydney. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 4h 5m.
Scheduled every day this week — 106 departures in all.
Qantas · 8 · Airbus A320, Boeing 737-800, Airbus A321, Boeing 787-9
QF6 · QF642 · QF644 · QF646 · QF648 · QF650 · QF652 · QF654
Virgin Australia · 7 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737, Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737 MAX 8
VA550 · VA552 · VA556 · VA558 · VA560 · VA562 · VA572
Jetstar · 2 · Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Airbus A321 NEO
JQ987 · JQ989
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 | 167,064 · Jan 2014 |
| Pandemic low | 1,073 · Sep 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 99.5% |
| Load factor, Jul 2026 | 81.3% |
| Aircraft trips, Jul 2026 | 966 |
| Great-circle distance | 3,284 km |
Traffic: to Jul 2026