Launceston to Melbourne flight delays and cancellations

3% of Launceston to Melbourne flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026, and 69.9% left on time. That is well above the national rate of 1.9%.

3,626 flights were scheduled from Launceston to Melbourne over the twelve months to September 2026, about 10 a day. 3% of them were cancelled, which is well above the national rate of 1.9% and puts it in the worst third of the 92 routes BITRE publishes. 69.9% of the flights that did operate left within 15 minutes of schedule. In practical terms that is about one cancellation in every 33 flights on this route.

Launceston to Melbourne at a glance

Cancelled3%
Departed on time69.9%
Flights a year3,626
Cancellations108

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 Launceston to Melbourne

Virgin Australia cancelled 0.3% of its flights on this route and QantasLink 6.9%. 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 Launceston to Melbourne by cancellation and on-time rate
AirlineCancelledOn timeFlights
QantasLink 6.9% 73% 1,346
Jetstar 1% 64.7% 1,180
Virgin Australia 0.3% 71.7% 1,100

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 Launceston to Melbourne

June is the month to avoid on this route, at 4.3% cancelled against 1.3% in April. If the trip can move, moving it is worth more than any airline choice you could make.

Launceston to Melbourne cancellation rate by month of the year Averaged over October 2023 to September 2026
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
4.3% Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Month by month, over the last two years

It has improved recently: 2.5% cancelled over the last six months against 3.4% in the six before.

Monthly cancellation rate, Launceston to Melbourne Percentage of scheduled flights cancelled
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% Oct 24Jan 25Apr 25Jul 25Oct 25Jan 26Apr 26Sep 26
See the monthly figures as a table
MonthCancelledOn timeFlights
January2.2%69.1% 1,063
February2.8%73.4% 860
March1.6%75.1% 935
April1.3%73.3% 866
May2.9%74.8% 815
June4.3%71% 782
July3.7%64.7% 836
August2%70.3% 811
September2.2%74.9% 818
October2.8%68.3% 886
November3.1%58.5% 799
December3.5%64.6% 975

The flight home

The return leg is a different flight with a different record: Melbourne to Launceston is cancelled 2.6% 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.

Melbourne to Launceston delays

If it is cancelled

About 108 Launceston to Melbourne 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 Launceston to Melbourne

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). Launceston to Melbourne flight delays. Derived from BITRE domestic airline on time performance data. Retrieved from https://beforeyoufly.com.au/flight-delays/launceston-melbourne/

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Launceston to Melbourne flight FAQs

How often are Launceston to Melbourne flights cancelled?

3% of scheduled Launceston to Melbourne flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026: 108 cancellations out of 3,626 scheduled flights. That is well above the national rate of 1.9%. The figures are BITRE's, collected from the airlines each month.

Are Launceston to Melbourne flights usually on time?

69.9% of Launceston to Melbourne flights that operated departed within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, against a national average of 78.7%. QantasLink was the most punctual carrier on the route at 73%.

Which airline is most reliable on Launceston to Melbourne?

Virgin Australia cancelled the fewest Launceston to Melbourne flights over the last year, at 0.3% of the 1,100 it scheduled. QantasLink cancelled the most at 6.9%. That is a gap of 6.6 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 Launceston to Melbourne?

June is the worst month on this route, with 4.3% of flights cancelled, and April the best at 1.3%. 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 3,626 scheduled flights in the period. All Australian flight delay statistics.

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