Cancelled
0.4%
1.7 pts better than average
Sunshine Coast to Melbourne
MEL → MCY · 1,454 km · 195 flights a month · Melbourne to Sunshine Coast
On time (departures)
66.2%
national 78.2%
Flight time
2h 35m
15m longer than the return
Latest month
0.5%
Jul 2026 cancelled
Airlines
4
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Jul 2026
Flights between Sunshine Coast and Melbourne carried 56,025 passengers in both directions in Jun 2026, ranking 23rd of the 62 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Jul 2026, 0.4% of flights from Sunshine Coast to Melbourne were cancelled, well below the national average of 2.1%. Direction matters here: Melbourne→Sunshine Coast departs on time 74.2% of the time against 66.2% coming back. Traffic now runs 31% above its 2019 average. The route is busiest in January and quietest in February.
The route
1,454 km great-circle · 2h 35m 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jetstar | 989 | 0.6% | 62.0% | |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 907 | 0.2% | 75.8% |
| Qantas | Qantas Group | 382 | 0.3% | 57.5% |
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 60 | 1.7% | 45.8% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne → Sunshine Coast | 74.2% | 0.1% | 2,338 |
| Sunshine Coast → Melbourne | 66.2% | 0.4% | 2,338 |
A 7.9 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, 1985 to 2026
Traffic: to Jun 2026 · Marks show industry events
Passenger figures count both directions together — Sunshine Coast to Melbourne and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Sunshine Coast to Melbourne 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 Sunshine Coast to Melbourne is 2h 35m gate to gate, over 1,454 km. The return leg is scheduled at 2h 20m — the two directions differ by 15m, so this way round is the slower one.
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
9 flight numbers currently scheduled from Sunshine Coast to Melbourne. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 2h 35m.
Scheduled every day this week — 47 departures in all.
Jetstar · 4 · Airbus A320
JQ793 · JQ795 · JQ797 · JQ799
Virgin Australia · 3 · Boeing 737-800
VA1030 · VA1036 · VA1040
Qantas · 2 · Boeing 737-800
QF917 · QF919
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 | 79,177 · Jan 2024 |
| Pandemic low | 15,405 · Jun 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 130.5% |
| Load factor, Jun 2026 | 89.6% |
| Aircraft trips, Jun 2026 | 335 |
| Great-circle distance | 1,454 km |
Traffic: to Jun 2026