Australian Flight Data

Sydney to Tongatapu

Tonga · 396 months of data from Sep 1990 · Tongatapu to Sydney

Passengers
11,729
Sydney to Tongatapu, 12 months to May 2026
Both directions
24,041
including Tongatapu to Sydney
Flight time
4h 25m
1h 15m shorter than the return
Load factor
83%
seats filled on this leg

Traffic: 12 months to May 2026

11,729 passengers flew Sydney to Tongatapu in the 12 months to May 2026, out of 24,041 on the route in both directions. Flights run about 83% full, much the same in both directions. This route has been reported for 33 years.

The route

Sydney Tongatapu

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

How long is the flight?

Scheduled flight time from Sydney to Tongatapu is 4h 25m gate to gate, over 3,589 km. Coming back takes 5h 40m — a difference of 1h 15m, so this direction is the quicker 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 Tongatapu. These are the numbers you book under.

Not a daily service — this week it is scheduled on Tue and Sat (2 departures).

Qantas · 1 · Boeing 737-800

QF189

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, 1990 to 2026

01,4552,909 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
01,4552,909Bonza 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 Nov 2022Aug 2024May 2026
01,4552,909Tigerair Australia stops flying — Feb 2020 COVID-19 border closures begin — Mar 2020 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 2016Feb 2020May 2026
01,4552,909Domestic deregulation ends the Two Airline Policy — Oct 1990 Virgin 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 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 1990May 2007May 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.

60%76%93% May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
42%68%94% Nov 2022Aug 2024May 2026
42%68%94% May 2016Feb 2020May 2026
2%48%94% Sep 2003Jul 2014May 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: 1.21× the annual average J F: 0.64× the annual average F M: 0.64× the annual average M A: 0.81× the annual average A M: 0.99× the annual average M J: 0.98× the annual average J J: 1.18× the annual average J A: 1.17× the annual average A S: 1.15× the annual average S O: 1.06× the annual average O N: 1.00× the annual average N D: 1.18× the annual average D

Freight

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

001 May 2025Nov 2025May 2026
001 Nov 2022Aug 2024May 2026
036 May 2016Feb 2020May 2026
01325 Sep 1990May 2007May 2026

To May 2026

The route in numbers

Busiest month on record2,909 · Jan 2026
Data coverageSep 1990 – May 2026 (396 months)
Freight, 12 months to May 20264 tonnes
Destination regionTonga

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 Tongatapu

Airport data