Qantas’ Leading Widebody Domestic Routes By Available Seat Miles

Australia may be the smallest continent but is also a vast country (the 6th largest in the world). Qantas uses widebody aircraft to connect some of Australia’s most popular and greatest-distance destinations. Qantas even employs a few widebody aircraft on the short 439-mile Melbourne to Sydney and 466-mile Sydney to Brisbane routes. The five airports with the most available seat miles include four of Australia’s five busiest airports. According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, here are Qantas’s top five leading widebody domestic routes by seat miles.

5

Sydney – Brisbane

1,819,730 Available Seat Miles

At 1,819,730, the domestic Qantas Sydney—Brisbane route has the fifth-most available seat miles. Sydney is the largest city in Australia (with a population of over 5 million or over 6 million in the greater Sydney area), while Brisbane is the third-largest city in Australia (with a population of 2.5 million or well over 3 million if the Gold Coast is included.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

While Qantas does use widebody airliners on this route, it mostly uses the narrowbody Boeing 737. Brisbane is the principal city of the state of Queensland, and the greater urban area is also served by the Gold Coast Airport (located around two hours by train from the Brisbane Airport).

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4

Melbourne – Cairns

1,940,360 Available Seat Miles

Cairns is famous for being the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef (the world’s largest reef) and the Daintree Rainforest (the world’s oldest rainforest). At 1,432 miles, the Melbourne to Cairns route is among the longest domestic Australian non-Perth routes. Most of the nonstop flights between Melbourne and Cairns are operated by Qantas’ budget brand Jetstar and rival Virgin Australia.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Cairns is the seventh-busiest airport in Australia but is still regarded as something of a regional airport (Cairns only has a population of around 150,000). That said, it is an international airport thanks to its world-beating tourist attractions. It has (often seasonal) international connections to New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Australia’s near-abroad in the Pacific.

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3

Melbourne – Sydney

4,555,503 (5,167,908 Sydney – Melbourne) Available Seat Miles

The air route between Melbourne and Sydney is one of the busiest domestic routes in the world (the fifth busiest, according to OAG). Melbourne and Sydney are the two largest cities in Australia (although neither is the capital – that’s Canberra). Perhaps surprisingly, it is much busier than the busiest domestic route in the US. The busiest domestic American route is Anchorage – Seattle, with 292,290 seats (this compares to Melbourne – Sydney’s 808,649 seats).

Photo: ymgerman | Shutterstock

The Melbourne—Sydney route ranks third among Qantas domestic widebody routes with 4,555,503 available seat miles (considerably less than the leading Perth routes). The flight time takes around 90 minutes, while the alternative of driving takes around 9 hours.

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2

Sydney – Perth

38,681,032 (Perth – Sydney 38,199,356) Available Seat Miles

Perth is generally regarded as the world’s most isolated major city. In a certain sense of the word, it is as removed from the core part of Australia (the populated coastal belt running from Queensland to Adelaide) as New Zealand is. Adelaide is the closest major city around 1,670 miles away). The 2,041-mile flight is also the longest of the widebody domestic Qantas flights listed here.

Photo: Ryan Fletcher | Shutterstock

While a few people may drive to Perth, very few will do this (it takes around 42 hours of nonstop driving). The vast majority opt to take the 5-hour flight between the two cities. Qantas serves the route with several aircraft types, including narrowbody Boeing 737s, widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and Airbus A330s. The available seat miles are the second highest for any domestic Qantas widebody route (at 18,716 or 18,952, depending on the direction).

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1

Melbourne – Perth

50,905,723 Available Seat Miles

As the second-largest city in Australia, Melbourne also has a large number of people traveling back and forth from Perth. Melbourne is only a little closer to Perth in the grand scheme of things (a 36-hour nonstop drive instead of a 42-hour one), so most folks choose to fly for the same reason as those in Sydney.

Photo: Qantas

In fact, data from Cirium shows that Qantas runs more widebody operations (114) between Melbourne and Perth than between Sydney and Perth (73-74). This means that the route boasts by a considerable margin the largest (50,905,723) available seat miles of any domestic Qantas widebody route. Perth Airport is also notable for being the only airport directly connecting Australia with London with Qantas’ 9,009-mile, 17-hour, and 45-minute flight, Flight QF-9, is flown with a Boeing 787-9.