BNE to CNS flight delays
7,250 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · Australian Government BITRE
79.31%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
0.74%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
—
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
—
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Qantas arrived on time 8.6 points more often than QantasLink over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
The season swings this route hard. In February it ran 30.2 points more punctual than in January — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
This is one of the heavily flown routes in the record — 7,250 flights in the period. Frequency is itself a form of insurance: when a flight goes wrong there is another one within hours, which is not true of the thin routes elsewhere on this site.
The Brisbane to Cairns route sits close to the middle of the record — neither notably punctual nor notably late.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, Qantas arrived on time most often on BNE to CNS. QantasLink was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in February and worst in November.
Every airline on BNE to CNS
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QantasLink | 2,708 | 77.18% | 0.96% | — | C |
| Virgin Australia | 2,491 | 79.88% | 0.64% | — | B |
| Jetstar | 1,541 | 79.96% | 0.58% | — | B |
| Qantas | 510 | 85.8% | 0.59% | — | B |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
CNS to BNE Cairns back to Brisbane 82.83% on time BOther routes from Brisbane
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on BNE to CNS during March 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →