PER to DRW flight delays
1,086 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · Australian Government BITRE
82.15%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
0.46%
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
The season swings this route hard. In May it ran 36.7 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.
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Qantas arrived on time 7.9 points more often than Virgin Australia Regional Airlines 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 two directions do not behave alike. DRW to PER arrives on time 6 points less often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
Flights from Perth to Darwin keep to schedule more reliably than most. On a route this punctual the day you fly matters more than the airline you pick.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, Qantas arrived on time most often on PER to DRW. Virgin Australia Regional Airlines was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in September and worst in July.
Every airline on PER to DRW
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 | 423 | 83.37% | 0.47% | — | B |
| Qantas | 276 | 84.36% | 0.36% | — | B |
| Virgin Australia | 194 | 81.96% | 0% | — | B |
| Virgin Australia Regional Airlines | 193 | 76.44% | 1.04% | — | C |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
DRW to PER Darwin back to Perth 76.12% on time CCommon questions
Are flights from Perth to Darwin usually delayed?
82.15% of flights on the PER to DRW route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 2 in every ten arrived late. That is better than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Perth to Darwin?
Qantas, at 84.36% on time across 276 flights. The least punctual on the route was Virgin Australia Regional Airlines at 76.44%.
How often are PER to DRW flights cancelled?
0.46% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 5 in every thousand. That is in the normal range.
What is the best month to fly Perth to Darwin?
May, when 90.5% of flights arrived on time. The worst was January at 53.8%.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on PER to DRW 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 →