Adelaide to Brisbane flight delays and cancellations

1.6% of Adelaide to Brisbane flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026, and 79.9% left on time. That is below the national rate of 1.9%.

3,889 flights were scheduled from Adelaide to Brisbane over the twelve months to September 2026, about 11 a day. 1.6% of them were cancelled, which is below the national rate of 1.9% and puts it around the middle of the 92 routes BITRE publishes. 79.9% of the flights that did operate left within 15 minutes of schedule. In practical terms that is about one cancellation in every 63 flights on this route.

Adelaide to Brisbane at a glance

Cancelled1.6%
Departed on time79.9%
Flights a year3,889
Cancellations62

Cancellation rate is cancellations divided by flights scheduled. On-time rate is on-time departures divided by flights flown, because a flight that was cancelled cannot also have left late. Each direction is counted separately: Sydney to Melbourne and Melbourne to Sydney are different flights with different records.

Which airline is most reliable on Adelaide to Brisbane

Jetstar cancelled 0.7% of its flights on this route and QantasLink 2.1%. Same airports, same weather, same twelve months, so the difference is the airline: schedule, aircraft type and how much slack it leaves in the day.

Airlines on Adelaide to Brisbane by cancellation and on-time rate
AirlineCancelledOn timeFlights
QantasLink 2.1% 80.1% 1,876
Virgin Australia 1.3% 81.9% 1,443
Jetstar 0.7% 74% 565

An airline needs 200 scheduled flights a year on the route to appear here. Codeshare flights are reported by the airline that operates them, so a Qantas-numbered flight flown by QantasLink counts as QantasLink.

The worst months to fly Adelaide to Brisbane

March is the month to avoid on this route, at 4.5% cancelled against 0.9% in June. If the trip can move, moving it is worth more than any airline choice you could make.

Adelaide to Brisbane cancellation rate by month of the year Averaged over October 2023 to September 2026
Jan
Feb
4.5% Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Month by month, over the last two years

It has been steady, running near 1.7% over the last six months.

Monthly cancellation rate, Adelaide to Brisbane Percentage of scheduled flights cancelled
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% Oct 24Jan 25Apr 25Jul 25Oct 25Jan 26Apr 26Sep 26
See the monthly figures as a table
MonthCancelledOn timeFlights
January1.5%80.4% 1,020
February0.9%83% 901
March4.5%86.7% 1,008
April1.2%85.2% 1,013
May1.4%85.9% 981
June0.9%80.6% 927
July1.5%73.5% 996
August2.7%75.2% 896
September1.8%80% 894
October1.1%73.8% 1,012
November2.4%70% 1,052
December2.4%72.9% 1,062

The flight home

The return leg is a different flight with a different record: Brisbane to Adelaide is cancelled 1.2% of the time, less often than the outbound. Morning departures generally do better than evening ones on any route, because a delay early in the day follows the aircraft around for the rest of it.

Brisbane to Adelaide delays

If it is cancelled

About 62 Adelaide to Brisbane flights were cancelled over the last twelve months, so on this route it is worth knowing the answer before you are standing at the desk. Australia has no fixed compensation payment like the European one. If the airline caused it you can ask for a refund or a seat on the next flight, on any carrier, and most airlines will cover a meal and a hotel. If it was weather or air traffic control, you get the later flight or your money back and nothing else.

What you are owed when a flight is cancelled

Booking Adelaide to Brisbane

You know the route's record now. This searches fares from Australia, on every airline flying them.

Flights from Australia

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Flying domestically? The rules are not the international ones

There is no 100ml liquid limit on an Australian domestic flight, and no need to take your laptop out. There is a quarantine rule on fruit and vegetables between states that catches people constantly.

What you can take on a domestic flight

Use this data

Free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution. The underlying counts are BITRE's under a CC BY 3.0 AU licence; the derived figures here - rates, rankings and the month-by-month breakdown - are ours, on the same terms.

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Each file carries a data dictionary explaining what every field means and which denominator it uses.

Cite this page

Before You Fly (2026). Adelaide to Brisbane flight delays. Derived from BITRE domestic airline on time performance data. Retrieved from https://beforeyoufly.com.au/flight-delays/adelaide-brisbane/

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Adelaide to Brisbane flight FAQs

How often are Adelaide to Brisbane flights cancelled?

1.6% of scheduled Adelaide to Brisbane flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026: 62 cancellations out of 3,889 scheduled flights. That is below the national rate of 1.9%. The figures are BITRE's, collected from the airlines each month.

Are Adelaide to Brisbane flights usually on time?

79.9% of Adelaide to Brisbane flights that operated departed within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, against a national average of 78.7%. Virgin Australia was the most punctual carrier on the route at 81.9%.

Which airline is most reliable on Adelaide to Brisbane?

Jetstar cancelled the fewest Adelaide to Brisbane flights over the last year, at 0.7% of the 565 it scheduled. QantasLink cancelled the most at 2.1%. That is a gap of 1.4 percentage points on the same route in the same months, so it is the airline rather than the weather.

What is the worst month to fly Adelaide to Brisbane?

March is the worst month on this route, with 4.5% of flights cancelled, and June the best at 0.9%. Measured across three years of BITRE data, so it reflects the route's usual pattern rather than one bad month.

Source: Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics, domestic airline on time performance, published on data.gov.au under a CC BY 3.0 AU licence. Figures cover the twelve months to September 2026 and were last refreshed 22 October 2026. On time means within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, which is BITRE's definition. This route had 3,889 scheduled flights in the period. All Australian flight delay statistics.

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