Australian Flight Data

Sydney to Guangzhou

China · 432 months of data from Jan 1985 · Guangzhou to Sydney

Passengers
257,895
Sydney to Guangzhou, 12 months to May 2026
Both directions
515,706
including Guangzhou to Sydney
Flight time
9h 50m
25m longer than the return
Load factor
88%
seats filled on this leg

Traffic: 12 months to May 2026

257,895 passengers flew Sydney to Guangzhou in the 12 months to May 2026, out of 515,706 on the route in both directions. Flights run about 88% full, much the same in both directions. This route has been reported for 36 years.

The route

Sydney Guangzhou

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

How long is the flight?

Scheduled flight time from Sydney to Guangzhou is 9h 50m gate to gate, over 7,507 km. Coming back takes 9h 25m — a difference of 25m, 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

2 flight numbers currently scheduled from Sydney to Guangzhou. These are the numbers you book under.

Scheduled every day this week — 14 departures in all.

China Southern · 2 · Airbus A350, Airbus A350-900, Airbus A330, Airbus A330-300

CZ302 · CZ326

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

032,07264,143 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
032,07264,143Delta 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
032,07264,143Tigerair Australia stops flying — Feb 2020 COVID-19 border closures begin — Mar 2020 The deepest month: domestic traffic falls 96% — Apr 2020 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 May 2016May 2021May 2026
032,07264,143Virgin Blue launches — Aug 2000 Ansett Australia collapses — Sep 2001 Jetstar launches — May 2004 OzJet's all-business experiment ends within months — Jan 2006 Tiger Airways Australia enters the market — Apr 2008 Volcanic ash cloud disrupts southern Australia — Jun 2011 Qantas grounds its entire fleet — Oct 2011 Skywest becomes Virgin Australia Regional Airlines — May 2013 Tigerair Australia stops flying — Feb 2020 COVID-19 border closures begin — Mar 2020 The deepest month: domestic traffic falls 96% — Apr 2020 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 1985Jun 2008May 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.

70%83%97% May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
2%50%97% May 2021Dec 2023May 2026
2%50%97% May 2016Apr 2021May 2026
2%50%97% Sep 2003Sep 2015May 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: 1.34× the annual average J F: 1.23× the annual average F M: 0.85× the annual average M A: 0.93× the annual average A M: 0.90× the annual average M J: 0.82× the annual average J J: 0.91× the annual average J A: 0.90× the annual average A S: 0.87× the annual average S O: 0.93× the annual average O N: 0.93× the annual average N D: 1.36× the annual average D

Freight

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

01,8213,642 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
01,9043,809 May 2021Nov 2023May 2026
01,9423,884 May 2016May 2021May 2026
01,9423,884 Jan 1985Jun 2008May 2026

To May 2026

The route in numbers

Busiest month on record64,143 · Jan 2026
Data coverageJan 1985 – May 2026 (432 months)
Freight, 12 months to May 202631,359 tonnes
Destination regionChina

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 Guangzhou

Airport data