Sydney to Port Macquarie flight delays and cancellations

4.1% of Sydney to Port Macquarie flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026, and 71.3% left on time. That is roughly 2 times the national rate of 1.9%.

2,089 flights were scheduled from Sydney to Port Macquarie over the twelve months to September 2026, about 6 a day. 4.1% of them were cancelled, which is roughly 2 times the national rate of 1.9% and puts it among the ten worst of the 92 routes BITRE publishes. 71.3% of the flights that did operate left within 15 minutes of schedule. In practical terms that is about one cancellation in every 24 flights on this route.

Sydney to Port Macquarie at a glance

Cancelled4.1%
Departed on time71.3%
Flights a year2,089
Cancellations85

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 Port Macquarie

QantasLink cancelled 2.3% of its flights on this route and Rex Airlines 7.1%. 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 Sydney to Port Macquarie by cancellation and on-time rate
AirlineCancelledOn timeFlights
QantasLink 2.3% 77% 1,316
Rex Airlines 7.1% 61% 773

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 Port Macquarie

February is the month to avoid on this route, at 6.9% cancelled against 1.5% in December. If the trip can move, moving it is worth more than any airline choice you could make.

Sydney to Port Macquarie cancellation rate by month of the year Averaged over October 2023 to September 2026
Jan
6.9% Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Month by month, over the last two years

It has been steady, running near 3.8% over the last six months.

Monthly cancellation rate, Sydney to Port Macquarie Percentage of scheduled flights cancelled
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% Oct 24Jan 25Apr 25Jul 25Oct 25Jan 26Apr 26Sep 26
See the monthly figures as a table
MonthCancelledOn timeFlights
January2.3%80.5% 441
February6.9%71.4% 507
March2.3%68.9% 524
April1.8%77.6% 495
May6.5%70.3% 511
June2.4%74.9% 490
July3.4%78% 522
August3.2%69.1% 529
September2.1%72% 519
October3.2%70.9% 554
November2.7%69.7% 566
December1.5%71% 533

The flight home

The return leg is a different flight with a different record: Port Macquarie to Sydney is cancelled 4.6% 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.

Port Macquarie to Sydney delays

If it is cancelled

About 85 Sydney to Port Macquarie 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 Sydney to Port Macquarie

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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Cite this page

Before You Fly (2026). Sydney to Port Macquarie flight delays. Derived from BITRE domestic airline on time performance data. Retrieved from https://beforeyoufly.com.au/flight-delays/sydney-port-macquarie/

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Sydney to Port Macquarie flight FAQs

How often are Sydney to Port Macquarie flights cancelled?

4.1% of scheduled Sydney to Port Macquarie flights were cancelled in the twelve months to September 2026: 85 cancellations out of 2,089 scheduled flights. That is roughly 2 times the national rate of 1.9%. The figures are BITRE's, collected from the airlines each month.

Are Sydney to Port Macquarie flights usually on time?

71.3% of Sydney to Port Macquarie 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 77%.

Which airline is most reliable on Sydney to Port Macquarie?

QantasLink cancelled the fewest Sydney to Port Macquarie flights over the last year, at 2.3% of the 1,316 it scheduled. Rex Airlines cancelled the most at 7.1%. That is a gap of 4.8 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 Port Macquarie?

February is the worst month on this route, with 6.9% of flights cancelled, and December the best at 1.5%. 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 2,089 scheduled flights in the period. All Australian flight delay statistics.

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