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Sydney to Canberra flight delays and cancellations
4.7% of Sydney to Canberra flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026, and 80.7% left on time. That is roughly 2.5 times the national rate of 1.9%.
7,209 flights were scheduled from Sydney to Canberra over the twelve months to September 2026, about 20 a day. 4.7% of them were cancelled, which is roughly 2.5 times the national rate of 1.9% and puts it the third worst of the 92 routes BITRE publishes. 80.7% of the flights that did operate left within 15 minutes of schedule. In practical terms that is about one cancellation in every 21 flights on this route.
Sydney to Canberra at a glance
Cancelled4.7%
Departed on time80.7%
Flights a year7,209
Cancellations339
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 Sydney to Canberra
Virgin Australia cancelled 3.6% of its flights on this route and QantasLink 5.5%. 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.
| Airline | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| QantasLink | 5.5% | 79.1% | 4,181 |
| Virgin Australia | 3.6% | 82.9% | 2,989 |
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 Sydney to Canberra
June is the month to avoid on this route, at 6.9% cancelled against 3.1% in January. If the trip can move, moving it is worth more than any airline choice you could make.
Month by month, over the last two years
It has improved recently: 3.8% cancelled over the last six months against 5.4% in the six before.
See the monthly figures as a table
| Month | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.1% | 79.8% | 1,400 |
| February | 5.6% | 78.5% | 1,885 |
| March | 3.7% | 79.8% | 2,012 |
| April | 3.7% | 84.9% | 1,849 |
| May | 4.7% | 82.4% | 1,966 |
| June | 6.9% | 81.6% | 1,859 |
| July | 6.8% | 78.1% | 1,951 |
| August | 4.2% | 78.6% | 1,924 |
| September | 4.5% | 79.2% | 1,913 |
| October | 5.8% | 79.3% | 2,084 |
| November | 3.8% | 71.8% | 2,014 |
| December | 3.7% | 74.8% | 1,663 |
The flight home
The return leg is a different flight with a different record: Canberra to Sydney is cancelled 5.3% of the time, more 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.
If it is cancelled
About 339 Sydney to Canberra 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.
Booking Sydney to Canberra
You know the route's record now. This searches fares from Australia, on every airline flying them.
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.
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 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.
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Cite this page
Before You Fly (2026). Sydney to Canberra flight delays. Derived from BITRE domestic airline on time performance data. Retrieved from https://beforeyoufly.com.au/flight-delays/sydney-canberra/
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Sydney to Canberra flight FAQs
How often are Sydney to Canberra flights cancelled?
4.7% of scheduled Sydney to Canberra flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026: 339 cancellations out of 7,209 scheduled flights. That is roughly 2.5 times the national rate of 1.9%. The figures are BITRE's, collected from the airlines each month.
Are Sydney to Canberra flights usually on time?
80.7% of Sydney to Canberra 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 82.9%.
Which airline is most reliable on Sydney to Canberra?
Virgin Australia cancelled the fewest Sydney to Canberra flights over the last year, at 3.6% of the 2,989 it scheduled. QantasLink cancelled the most at 5.5%. That is a gap of 1.9 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 Sydney to Canberra?
June is the worst month on this route, with 6.9% of flights cancelled, and January the best at 3.1%. 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 7,209 scheduled flights in the period. All Australian flight delay statistics.