The corridor between Sydney and Melbourne is not only one of the world’s busiest airline routes, it’s a billion dollar goldmine for Qantas.
According to flight schedule analysis from OAG, Sydney-Melbourne is the world’s second highest revenue-earning route in the world with an estimated annual value to Qantas of almost US$855 million, or a whopping A$1.15 billion per year.
That should come as no surprise to regular commuters on the 90 minute journey, which sees over 100 flights per day and remains hotly contested between Qantas and challenger Virgin Australia.
“All of the top 10 routes are also high-cost operations,” says OAG’s John Grant. “Typically, these routes also include a high proportion of business traffic, later booking and higher yielding in nature."
The world’s richest route for airline revenue is British Airways’ trans-Atlantic spring between London and New York , at US$1.04 billion, with Emirates’ Dubai-London leg in third place for its annual haul of US$820 million.
In fact, London lists as half of the world’s ten most lucrative routes with flights from the hubs of Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways also gaining a spot on the leaderboard.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
14 Jan 2014
Total posts 340
Love London.. pity about Heathrow..
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Jul 2015
Total posts 219
Boris Johnson had the right idea but shouted down
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
12 Jul 2016
Total posts 27
completely disagree - Heathrow is still the right answer, there are significant issues with Boris Island idea, notwithstanding flight path issues with AMS / huge environmental, and cost to link London
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Apr 2014
Total posts 19
should have
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1242
This never ceases to amaze me.
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
31 Jul 2012
Total posts 20
Exactly why a high speed train would be viable on the SYD-MEL route, with connections to CBR and BNE soon after proven.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Aug 2014
Total posts 40
SYD-MEL does stand out in this list as by far the shortest.
04 May 2018
Total posts 43
Obvious choice for high speed rail if only the government encouraged infrastructure projects - using "green" electricity from environmental sources too?
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
02 Jul 2018
Total posts 37
Not surprising me as normally you get Qantas SYD-MEL return for $500 but a promotional fare for Qantas/ CX SYD-HKG for $600. Sometimes you find SYD-PER is more expensive than SYD-SIN or SYD-HKG...
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Apr 2012
Total posts 57
MEL-SYD is more expensive than MEL-SYD-OOL ! OOL-SYD-HKG this week was $~535 :)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Apr 2012
Total posts 57
It certainly is the king of the Aussie Golden Triangle ! Fog, storms, aircraft issues or 'downgrades' (332-738) ... qs are up the corridors lol. One downgrade yesterday (saw every QF SYD MEL flight full to 10pm.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 Apr 2017
Total posts 32
Interesting that TOKYO to OSAKA isn't on this list considering they are similar distance as MEL-SYD with combined urban areas of 40+ million people. Of course, the reason is the wonderful high-speed rail that (a) provides competition and (b) negates any need/desire to travel by plane between those two major cities.
24 Apr 2013
Total posts 18
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
Qantas virgin etc. Would do anything they can to kill off high speed rail
25 Mar 2015
Total posts 30
@tom m, I guess you probably do not value your time highly; I don't care how luxurious the bus is, I do not wish to spend 20 hours (sometimes more based on your comment) to commute from LA to SF. If I am not flying, I far FAR prefer to drive the distance myself than be on a bus from 11:00am to 7:00am the next day.
03 May 2017
Total posts 26
I'm guessing 11am was a typo as it's only just over 600km so around 6-7 hour trip time. Much more friendly and no reason why some travellers wouldn't find it attractive as an option between Melbourne and Sydney.
24 Apr 2013
Total posts 18
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
24 Apr 2013
Total posts 18
This was was about 5-7 days out. In business you rarely get weeks out. I think even $140 each way a few weeks out you have to be selective on times.
24 Apr 2013
Total posts 18
25 Mar 2015
Total posts 30
@tom m, I agree with your assessment, especially "The fact that this country does not have a high seed or medium speed train is national embrassesment we should all be ashamed of."
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
I completely agree. I've done some fast train travel in Europe and it's wonderful – taking the best known example of Eurostar, it's pretty much just as fast on an overall city-to-city travel time basis but far more enjoyably and efficient from a business travel perspective.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
20 Dec 2011
Total posts 20
Hahaha.... "Exactly why a high speed train would be viable on the SYD-MEL route"
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