Australian Flight Data

Sydney to Colombo

Sri Lanka · 202 months of data from Jan 1985 · Colombo to Sydney

Passengers
48,100
Sydney to Colombo, 12 months to May 2026
Both directions
99,183
including Colombo to Sydney
Flight time
11h 15m
1h 10m longer than the return
Load factor
80%
seats filled on this leg

Traffic: 12 months to May 2026

48,100 passengers flew Sydney to Colombo in the 12 months to May 2026, out of 99,183 on the route in both directions. Flights Sydney to Colombo run 80% full, against 86% coming back.

The route

Sydney Colombo

Distances are true from Sydney; the ring marks the distance to Colombo.

How long is the flight?

Scheduled flight time from Sydney to Colombo is 11h 15m gate to gate, over 8,760 km. Coming back takes 10h 5m — a difference of 1h 10m, 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

1 flight number currently scheduled from Sydney to Colombo. These are the numbers you book under.

Not a daily service — this week it is scheduled on Fri, Sat and Sun (3 departures).

SriLankan · 1 · Airbus A330-300

UL607

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, 1985 to 2026

04,6719,341 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
04,7009,399Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 May 2021Nov 2023May 2026
04,7009,399Rex enters the trunk routes with jets — Mar 2021 Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 Sep 2020Jul 2023May 2026
04,7009,399The pilots' dispute grounds domestic aviation — Aug 1989 Virgin Blue launches — Aug 2000 Rex enters the trunk routes with jets — Mar 2021 Delta lockdowns close the eastern states — Jul 2021 Omicron wave hits crew availability — Jan 2022 Bonza launches on leisure routes — Nov 2023 Bonza collapses after 15 months — Mar 2024 Rex enters administration and exits the trunk routes — Aug 2024 Cyclone Alfred closes south-east Queensland airports — Mar 2025 Jan 1985Dec 1998May 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.

67%80%94% May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
4%52%100% Sep 2020Aug 2023May 2026

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.

J: 1.03× the annual average J F: 0.89× the annual average F M: 0.99× the annual average M A: 1.05× the annual average A M: 0.97× the annual average M J: 0.98× the annual average J J: 1.01× the annual average J A: 0.95× the annual average A S: 1.04× the annual average S O: 0.95× the annual average O N: 1.03× the annual average N D: 1.10× the annual average D

Freight

Tonnes of air freight carried on this route — a dimension the domestic data does not have at all.

0100201 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
0170340 May 2021Nov 2023May 2026
0170340 Sep 2020Jul 2023May 2026
0170340 Jan 1985Dec 1998May 2026

To May 2026

The route in numbers

Busiest month on record9,399 · Mar 2022
Data coverageJan 1985 – May 2026 (202 months)
Freight, 12 months to May 20261,806 tonnes
Destination regionSri Lanka

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.

Related routes

From Sydney

To Colombo

Airport data