Cancelled
2.2%
0.3 pts worse than average
Sydney to Adelaide
SYD → ADL · 1,167 km · 564 flights a month · Adelaide to Sydney
On time (departures)
80.3%
national 78.8%
Flight time
2h 10m
15m longer than the return
Latest month
1.3%
Aug 2026 cancelled
Airlines
4
on this direction
Punctuality: 12 months to Aug 2026
Flights between Sydney and Adelaide carried 162,765 passengers in both directions in Jul 2026, ranking 8th of the 61 routes with reported traffic that month. Over the 12 months to Aug 2026, 2.2% of flights from Sydney to Adelaide were cancelled, close to the national average of 2.0%. In the published records for Sep 2025–Aug 2026, Jetstar recorded 3.9% cancellations across 1,655 scheduled flights, compared with Qantas's 1.5% across 2,840 scheduled flights in this direction. These are observed samples, not a forecast. Direction matters here: Sydney→Adelaide departs on time 80.3% of the time against 76.9% coming back. The route is busiest in October and quietest in February.
The route
1,167 km great-circle · 2h 10m 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 | 2,840 | 1.5% | 84.3% |
| Virgin Australia | Virgin Australia Group | 2,147 | 1.7% | 79.7% |
| Jetstar | 1,655 | 3.9% | 73.3% | |
| QantasLink | Qantas Group | 131 | 5.3% | 88.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney → Adelaide | 80.3% | 2.2% | 6,773 |
| Adelaide → Sydney | 76.9% | 2.3% | 6,765 |
A 3.3 point gap in on-time departures · 12 months to Aug 2026
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 — Sydney to Adelaide and back. The published statistics do not separate them. Cancellations, punctuality and flight numbers above are for Sydney to Adelaide 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 Sydney to Adelaide is 2h 10m gate to gate, over 1,167 km. The return leg is scheduled at 1h 55m — 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
23 flight numbers currently scheduled from Sydney to Adelaide. These are the numbers you book under — some are operated by a regional partner such as QantasLink or Alliance.
Typical flight time 2h 10m.
Scheduled every day this week — 134 departures in all.
Qantas · 10 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-800 (winglets), Embraer 190
QF731 · QF733 · QF735 · QF737 · QF739 · QF741 · QF743 · QF745 · QF749 · QF1993
Virgin Australia · 8 · Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-800 (winglets), Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737 MAX 8
VA404 · VA412 · VA414 · VA418 · VA424 · VA428 · VA434 · VA442
Jetstar · 5 · Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Airbus A321 NEO, Airbus A320 (Sharklets)
JQ760 · JQ762 · JQ764 · JQ768 · JQ770
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 | 179,288 · Oct 2024 |
| Pandemic low | 1,227 · Sep 2021 |
| Traffic vs 2019 average | 98.8% |
| Load factor, Jul 2026 | 78.2% |
| Aircraft trips, Jul 2026 | 1,231 |
| Great-circle distance | 1,167 km |
Traffic: to Jul 2026