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Qantas delays and cancellations
Qantas cancelled 1.6% of its 83,350 scheduled domestic flights in the twelve months to September 2026, against a national 1.9%. 82.6% of its flights left on time.
Qantas sits 5 of 7 on cancellations, from worst to best. On punctuality it is 2 of 7, at 82.6% of departures on time. Its record has improved over the past six months: 1.3% cancelled against 1.9% in the six before. It flies about 15% of Australia's scheduled domestic sectors.
Qantas at a glance
Cancelled1.6%
Departed on time82.6%
Flights a year83,350
Cancellations1,336
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.
How Qantas compares
Every Australian domestic airline BITRE reports, on the same measure and the same twelve months.
| Airline | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skytrans Australia | 3.4% | 75.5% | 3,200 |
| QantasLink | 2.8% | 81% | 149,373 |
| Rex Airlines | 2.3% | 76% | 50,969 |
| Jetstar | 1.9% | 70.6% | 96,437 |
| Qantas | 1.6% | 82.6% | 83,350 |
| Virgin Australia | 1.2% | 78.4% | 141,581 |
| Hinterland | 0.6% | 94.4% | 18,977 |
The Qantas routes cancelled most
An airline's overall rate hides where the trouble actually is. On Qantas, Melbourne to Sydney is the worst at 3.6%, which is 2.3 times its own average.
| Route | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne to Sydney | 3.6% | 82.4% | 9,550 |
| Sydney to Melbourne | 3.5% | 81.6% | 9,568 |
| Brisbane to Sydney | 2.3% | 82.9% | 6,199 |
| Sydney to Brisbane | 2.2% | 79.6% | 6,176 |
| Adelaide to Sydney | 1.7% | 81.8% | 2,838 |
| Sydney to Adelaide | 1.5% | 84.4% | 2,839 |
Its busiest routes
| Route | Flights | Cancelled | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney to Melbourne | 9,568 | 3.5% | 81.6% |
| Melbourne to Sydney | 9,550 | 3.6% | 82.4% |
| Brisbane to Sydney | 6,199 | 2.3% | 82.9% |
| Sydney to Brisbane | 6,176 | 2.2% | 79.6% |
| Melbourne to Brisbane | 3,274 | 1% | 87% |
| Brisbane to Melbourne | 3,262 | 1% | 88.8% |
Route-level figures cover the city pairs BITRE names individually. Codeshare flights are reported by the airline that operates them.
Qantas cancellations over two years
If it is cancelled
Qantas cancelled 1,336 scheduled flights over the last twelve months, and what you get for one of them depends on why it went. 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.
Booking a domestic flight
If Qantas's record is good enough for the trip you are taking, this searches fares across every airline flying it.
Fares are searched live and are not ours to quote, so these go straight to the search rather than showing a price that would be out of date by the time you read it. We earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the figures above.
What is actually worth booking.
New destination guides and side-by-side comparisons for Australian travellers - which eSIM, which travel card, which insurance is worth paying for, and what to sort before you go. Prices in Australian dollars, a few emails a year.
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.
Download
- Everything as JSON
- Cancellation and on-time rates by route as CSV
- Cancellation and on-time rates by airline as CSV
Each file carries a data dictionary explaining what every field means and which denominator it uses.
Cite this page
Before You Fly (2026). Qantas delays and cancellations. Derived from BITRE domestic airline on time performance data. Retrieved from https://beforeyoufly.com.au/flight-delays/airlines/qantas/
Qantas reliability FAQs
How often does Qantas cancel flights?
Qantas cancelled 1.6% of its scheduled domestic flights in the twelve months to September 2026, out of 83,350 scheduled. The national rate across all Australian domestic airlines was 1.9%. The figures are collected by BITRE from the airlines themselves.
Is Qantas on time?
82.6% of Qantas flights that operated departed within 15 minutes of schedule, against a national average of 78.7%. On punctuality it is 2 of 7, at 82.6% of departures on time.
Which Qantas route is cancelled most?
Melbourne to Sydney is the Qantas route with the highest cancellation rate, at 3.6% of 9,550 scheduled flights over the last year. Routes need 400 scheduled flights a year to be ranked, so a very small route will not appear.
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. All Australian flight delay statistics.