There’s a lot you can achieve in 15 minutes. You can bake a fresh batch of choc chip cookies, smash out a mini HIIT workout, binge an episode of your favourite sitcom, or start planning your next holiday. But you know what else you could do? Fly from Townsville to Palm Island on what might just be Australia’s shortest commercial flight.
Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz about the world’s longest non-stop flight between Sydney and London, which is set to take off in 2027. But what about the other end of the spectrum? We thought it’d be interesting to flip the script and track down Australia’s shortest flights. This isn’t an official ranking, but we did our best to find the domestic routes that are likely shorter than any city dweller’s daily commute to work. It's also worth noting that actual flight times can fluctuate based on weather conditions, so we've based this list on scheduled durations.
According to our research, Australia’s quickest domestic route is the flight between Townsville and Palm Island. Covering just 59 kilometres, the sky-high shortcut has a scheduled time of 23 minutes – but the actual flying time is closer to 15 minutes. It's so fast that the seatbelt sign barely flicks off, and you won't have time to think about coffee or snacks. Home to the country’s largest discrete Indigenous community (with around 4,000 residents), Palm Island is serviced by Hinterland Aviation, which runs up to 13 scheduled flights daily on weekdays.
The second-fastest flight we found in Australia was the 25-minute hop between Kowanyama and Pormpuraawa, also run by Hinterland Aviation. You can jet between these two towns on the west coast of Cape York faster than I can get from my house to my office – and way quicker than the nearly four-hour drive it would take by road.
Rex Airlines also operates two incredibly speedy flights, each also with a scheduled time of 25 minutes – one between Doomadgee and Burketown in Outback Queensland, and another linking Griffith to Narrandera-Leeton in regional New South Wales. Close behind is Seair Pacific’s Bundaberg to Lady Elliot Island flight, clocking in at around 30 minutes. With seats for up to 13 guests and two daily departures, it’s a popular option for day-trippers visiting the island paradise.
When it comes to Australia’s major domestic carrier, the shortest flights in the Qantas network are the 35-minute routes between Mount Isa and Cloncurry (with a flying time of just 16 minutes) and Barcaldine and Longreach (with an air time of 20 minutes). Both paths cover just 106 kilometres aboard a Q400 aircraft, which seats up to 78 passengers. You'll barely have time to make friends with your seat neighbour, though.
While some Torres Strait Island flights are technically shorter than the ones listed above, we’ve focused on routes that depart from mainland Australia and thus are more frequently used by travellers. But if you're interested, Hinterland Aviation's Kubin Island to Badu Island flight has an air time of just five to six minutes! So, in the time you took to read this article, you could've already hopped between islands.
These are the 10 shortest flights in Australia, according to our research
- Townsville to Palm Island (Hinterland Aviation) – 23 minutes
- Kowanyama to Pormpuraawa (Hinterland Aviation) – 25 minutes
- Doomadgee and Burketown (Rex Airlines) – 25 minutes
- Griffith to Narrandera-Leeton (Rex Airlines) – 25 minutes
- Bundaberg to Lady Elliot Island (Seaair Pacific)– 30 minutes
- Mount Isa and Cloncurry (QantasLink) – 35 minutes
- Barcaldine and Longreach (QantasLink) – 35 minutes
- Sydney and Newcastle (Pelican Airlines) – 40 minutes
- Sydney to Coba (Pelican Airlines) – 40 minutes
- Adelaide to Kingscote – 40 minutes