How Much Is a Flight to Australia? (2026 Data)

A round-trip ticket from the United States to Australia costs about $990¹ on average right now. February is the cheapest month, with a median round trip of $618¹, and December the most expensive at $840¹. Nonstop flights take between 10h 40m² from Honolulu and 17h 40m³ from Dallas/Fort Worth, 15h 25m⁴ on average across 11 nonstop routes, two of them seasonal (from October 24), so this is one of the longest trips an American can book.

2.34 million⁵ passengers flew nonstop between the two countries in 2025, still well below the 3.32 million⁵ of 2019. Below: current fares by destination city, month and weekday, the taxes and charges inside every ticket, flight times, 36 years of official traffic data and the airports that carry it.

The average fare to Australia in 2026

Round trips from the US to Australia averaged $990¹ over the past month, counting every US departure airport and every Australian arrival airport together. That is a snapshot of prices seen in late September 2026, its cabin mix is not stated, and it moves from week to week.¹ The cheapest ticket found in the two weeks before that was $339¹, on the Los Angeles to Brisbane route; that is a single fare, not an average, and it shows how far below the typical price a well-timed deal can go.

The two most popular routes on the fare-search site are both to Brisbane.¹ Los Angeles to Brisbane averaged $1,112¹ and San Francisco to Brisbane $1,632¹, so the San Francisco trip cost $520⁴ more, or 1.47⁴ times as much.¹ These route averages come from a different set of prices than the country-wide figure and are not directly comparable with it.

How much is a flight to Sydney, Australia?

The fare page shows one deal card per city under the heading "cheapest round-trip prices found by our users in the last 5 days".¹ The Sydney card offered a round trip from $781¹ per person, the Brisbane card from $813¹, the Melbourne card from $913¹ and the Perth card, a trip with two stops, from $1,112¹. Each card is one example flight, not the lowest fare to that city: the same page puts the cheapest ticket to Australia found in those five days at $568¹ round trip, to Melbourne, and the cheapest on Dallas/Fort Worth to Sydney, the route it names as the most popular, at $585¹.

Sydney is also where most travelers go. It took 64%¹ of fare searches to Australia, and its airport handled 62.4%⁴ of all passengers on nonstop US-Australia flights in 2025.⁵

Perth is the outlier: it is on the far side of the continent from the US and has no nonstop flight from America, so its card is a two-stop trip.¹ Averaged over the past month rather than taken from a single deal, Brisbane was the cheapest Australian airport to fly into, at $638¹.¹

The price also depends on when you go, and the calendar swings it more than the arrival city.

The cheapest time to fly to Australia

February has the lowest median round trip of the year, $618¹. December is the most expensive month at $840¹, followed by July at $823¹: December is summer holidays and Christmas in Australia, July the American summer break. The December median is $222⁴ above February's, 1.36⁴ times as much, and July is $205⁴ above it.¹ April is the low season and December the high season.¹

These monthly figures are medians of the past year's prices after the top 0.1% is removed, a different statistic from the $990¹ average: a median is less sensitive to a few expensive premium-cabin fares, so it sits lower.¹

The weekday matters less. Wednesday departures were the cheapest, from $1,173¹, and Saturday departures the most expensive at $1,246¹ on average, a gap of $73⁴.¹ Those weekday prices are higher than the monthly medians because they come from another part of the price data; within the row, the ranking is what counts.

Booking time has a clearer effect. Tickets booked about two weeks before departure were around 6%¹ cheaper than last-minute ones, and the very lowest prices turned up about 8¹ weeks ahead.¹ For a December trip, when fares are at their highest, that means booking by October.

How long the flight takes

Eleven nonstop routes link the US and Australia, two of them seasonal (from October 24). The shortest by far is Honolulu to Sydney, 10h 40m². From the mainland, Los Angeles to Brisbane is the quickest at 13h 50m⁶, followed by San Francisco to Brisbane at 14h 05m⁷; San Francisco to Sydney takes 14h 55m⁸ and Los Angeles to Sydney 15h 00m⁹. Melbourne is about an hour further: 15h 50m¹⁰ from San Francisco and 15h 55m¹¹ from Los Angeles.

The Texas routes are the longest. Dallas/Fort Worth to Sydney is scheduled at 17h 00m¹² and Dallas/Fort Worth to Melbourne at 17h 40m³, the longest of all. Two seasonal flights return on October 24, 2026: Dallas/Fort Worth to Brisbane at 17h 15m¹³ and Houston to Sydney at 17h 30m¹⁴. That puts the average flight time to Australia across the 11 routes at 15h 25m⁴, with 7h 00m⁴ between the shortest and the longest.

Times shift slightly with the seasons: from October 25, 2026, Los Angeles to Brisbane is scheduled at 14h 10m⁶ and Dallas/Fort Worth to Melbourne at 17h 45m³.

Most departures leave at night: 77%¹ of the flights from the US to Australia listed on the fare-search site, including codeshare flight numbers, take off in the evening or overnight.¹ The Los Angeles flights land in the morning two calendar days after they leave, because they cross the International Date Line.⁹ Friday is the busiest departure day, with 17%¹ of listed flights. A night flight and the date change mean the first day in Australia is often lost to jet lag, which is worth counting when a cheap fare shortens the trip.

Taxes and fees inside an Australia ticket

Every round trip from the US to Australia carries a layer of government charges that no sale can remove. On the US side, the international transportation tax is $23.40¹⁵ on departure and again on arrival in 2026, plus the September 11 security fee of $5.60¹⁶, the customs arrival fee of $7.39¹⁷, the immigration user fee of $7.00¹⁸ and the agricultural inspection fee of $3.84¹⁹: $70.63⁴ in federal taxes and fees. The security fee is charged per one-way trip that starts at a US airport, so a US-Australia-US round trip pays it once, on the way out.¹⁶ Two of the fees change on October 1, 2026: the customs fee rises to $7.61²⁰ and the agricultural fee to $3.98¹⁹ for tickets bought from that date. Together they take the federal total to $70.99⁴; with the passenger facility charge of up to $4.50²¹ at the US departure airport (one US boarding on a nonstop round trip, since the return starts abroad), US government charges come to $75.13⁴, or $75.49⁴ from October 1.²¹²²

Australia adds its Passenger Movement Charge, paid by everyone aged 12 and over who leaves the country by air or sea. It is A$70²³ now, about $49.99⁴ at the September 2026 rate of 0.7141²⁴ US dollars per Australian dollar, and it rises by A$10 to A$80²³, about $57.13⁴, from January 1, 2027.²³ From the same date the charge will follow the departure date rather than the date the ticket was sold, with a 6²³-month transition for tickets already sold.

Together the charges, including the US passenger facility charge, come to $125.12⁴ per round trip today, $125.48⁴ from October 1 to December 31, 2026, and $132.62⁴ from January 2027. That is 12.6%⁴ of the $990¹ average fare (12.7%⁴ from October 1), and for four adults the government charges alone reach $500.48⁴ today and $501.92⁴ from October 1. Children under 12 do not pay the Australian charge. Airline fuel surcharges and other airport fees are extra and are not included in this total.

How many people fly between the US and Australia

2,339,171⁵ passengers flew nonstop between US and Australian airports in 2025, counting both directions and all nationalities. That is 70.4%⁴ of the 3,322,409⁵ of 2019, the all-time high, and 106.2%⁴ of the 2010 level. In 2021 the route carried only 100,778⁵ people, 3.0%⁴ of 2019, while Australia's border was closed.⁵

Over 36 years the market has grown steadily, from 902,817⁵ passengers in 1990 to the 2019 peak, with dips after 2000 and in 2008. The recovery since the reopening has been slower than on many other long-haul routes: 2.21 million⁵ in 2023, 2.24 million⁵ in 2024 and 2.34 million⁵ in 2025, still 983,238⁴ passengers short of 2019.⁵ A straight line fitted to 1990-2025 without the pandemic years reaches about 4.75 million⁴ passengers by 2050; it is our calculation, not a forecast.

Flights have come back faster than passengers. There were 10,679²⁵ nonstop passenger flights (scheduled) in 2025, about 29⁴ a day across both directions, 85.0%⁴ of the 2019 count, so flights are 15.0%⁴ below 2019 and passengers 29.6%⁴ below.²⁵ The difference shows up in the planes: the average scheduled passenger flight carried 219⁴ passengers in 2025, against 264⁴ in 2019 and 224⁴ in 1990.⁵ Smaller long-range jets make the thinner routes possible: Houston to Sydney was launched with a 252²⁶-seat Boeing 787-9.²⁶

The busiest and quietest months

Traffic peaks in the southern summer. January 2025 was the busiest month, with 264,211⁵ passengers, and August the quietest, with 169,845⁵; January carried 1.56⁴ times as many. December and January together accounted for 22.0%⁴ of the year's traffic.⁵ The recovery is uneven through the year: January reached 83.8%⁴ of its 2019 level and December 85.9%⁴, but May only 60.2%⁴, and June to September stayed between 61.7%⁴ and 64.3%⁴. Most of the missing passengers are in the Australian autumn and winter.⁵

Flights follow the same calendar, but the schedule has recovered further than the passenger count. In 2025 there were 1,123²⁵ passenger flights (scheduled) in December and 1,092²⁵ in January, against 776²⁵ in September, the fewest of the year. February was back to 99.5%⁴ of its 2019 flights and December to 99.7%⁴, while June was at 76.8%⁴ and September at 74.8%⁴.²⁵ The southern-summer schedule is close to its old size; the winter schedule is still about a quarter smaller.

The recovery also differs sharply by airport. Two US gateways are already above their 2019 traffic while the largest ones are far below it.⁵

Gateways and airports

Los Angeles is the main door to Australia. It handled 1,172,479⁵ nonstop passengers in 2025, 50.1%⁴ of the total, ahead of San Francisco with 503,084⁵, Honolulu with 320,930⁵, Dallas/Fort Worth with 288,410⁵ and Houston with 54,068⁵. These five airports carried 99.99%⁴ of all passengers.⁵ Los Angeles also has the most flights: 4,923²⁵ passenger flights (scheduled) in 2025, 46.1%⁴ of the total.²⁵

The map of gateways has shifted since 2019. San Francisco is up to 114.2%⁴ of its 2019 traffic and Dallas/Fort Worth to 128.9%⁴, while Los Angeles is at 60.2%⁴, Honolulu at 53.5%⁴ and Houston at 49.2%⁴.⁵ More of the traffic now comes through hubs where travelers from the rest of the country connect.

Counted in passenger flights (scheduled) rather than passengers, the shift is sharper. San Francisco had 2,444²⁵ flights to and from Australia in 2025, 1.33⁴ times its 1,842²⁵ of 2019, and Dallas/Fort Worth had 1,375²⁵, 2.19⁴ times its 627²⁵ of 2019. Los Angeles fell from 7,089²⁵ flights in 2019 to 4,923²⁵, 69.4%⁴ of its old count, and Honolulu from 2,482²⁵ to 1,632²⁵, or 65.8%⁴.²⁵

The busiest routes

Los Angeles-Sydney is by far the busiest route, with 756,357⁵ passengers in 2025, 32.3%⁴ of all US-Australia traffic, though down from 965,671⁵ in 2019. Honolulu-Sydney is second with 264,925⁵, just ahead of Los Angeles-Melbourne with 258,787⁵, which has fallen to 42.7%⁴ of its 606,118⁵ of 2019.⁵ The San Francisco routes grew instead: San Francisco-Melbourne rose from 92,087⁵ passengers in 2019 to 143,939⁵, and San Francisco-Brisbane, with only 227⁵ in 2019, carried 127,522⁵ in 2025.⁵

How much is a flight from New York to Australia?

There is no scheduled nonstop flight from New York to Australia, so a trip from the East Coast means a connection.⁵ The country-wide average of $990¹ covers every US departure airport, including the connecting ones, so it is the best single guide for a New York trip too; the gateway leg adds hours rather than a fixed surcharge.¹ It is worth comparing a through ticket with a separate domestic flight to Los Angeles, which has the most departures to Australia.

Where the flights land

On the Australian side, Sydney took 1,460,014⁵ nonstop passengers from and to the US in 2025, 62.4%⁴ of the total. Melbourne had 534,258⁵ and Brisbane 340,964⁵; the three carried almost 100.0%⁴ of all traffic, and Adelaide, with 3,197⁵, was the only other airport above a thousand.⁵ Sydney is at 69.7%⁴ of its 2019 level, Melbourne at 68.3%⁴ and Brisbane at 76.4%⁴, the strongest recovery of the three.

By state, the pattern is even more concentrated. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland take almost every passenger. Adelaide gained scheduled United service from San Francisco in December 2025, with 3,168⁵ passengers that month, which puts South Australia next. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory saw only a few hundred passengers on occasional flights and charters, and no nonstop US passengers were recorded to Western Australia or Tasmania in 2025.⁵ Travelers heading to Perth, Hobart or Darwin connect in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

Search interest follows the same order: Sydney drew 64%¹ of fare searches to Australia, Melbourne 27%¹ and Brisbane 8%¹, with Perth and every other city sharing the last 1%⁴.¹

The airlines

Qantas operated the most passenger flights (scheduled) between the US and Australia in 2025, 4,273²⁵ in both directions, ahead of United with 3,603²⁵, American with 1,022²⁵, Delta with 989²⁵, Hawaiian with 518²⁵ and Jetstar with 274²⁵.²⁵ United has flown nonstop to Australia from its West Coast hubs since 1986²⁶ and added Houston in 2018.²⁶

Counted by passengers actually carried, Qantas is the largest airline on the route, with 979,213⁵ passengers in 2025, 41.9%⁴ of the total, down from 1,479,556⁵ in 2019. United added the most passengers (+195,099⁴): 715,939⁵ in 2025, 137.5%⁴ of its 2019 count. American (241,704⁵) and Delta (226,939⁵) are also above 2019, while Jetstar fell to 77,592⁵ and Virgin Australia, with 508,562⁵ passengers in 2019, carried none on the route from 2023 to 2025.⁵

The fare-search site lists more direct flights than actually operate, because its schedule counts codeshare flight numbers: one plane can carry the numbers of several airlines. The flight counts below are operated passenger flights (scheduled) in 2025; the departure-time shares are for flights listed on the fare-search site, including codeshare flight numbers.¹

What these numbers mean for your trip

For a family of four, the season is the biggest lever.¹ At the February median of $618¹ against the December median of $840¹, four tickets differ by about $888⁴. If all four are aged 12 or over, roughly $500.48⁴ of the bill is government charges that no sale touches, $501.92⁴ from October 1.¹ From January 2027, the higher Australian charge adds about $7.14⁴ per person.²³

The departure airport sets the rest. Los Angeles has the most flights,²⁵ and the Brisbane route from there is the cheaper of the two most popular routes on the fare-search site; flying from San Francisco to Brisbane costs $520⁴ more on average.¹ Travelers from the East Coast face a connection in any case, so a cheap domestic flight to Los Angeles plus a separate ticket can beat a through fare, at the cost of the protection a single ticket gives if a flight is late.

Demand is still below 2019, most of all in the Australian autumn and winter: January traffic was at 83.8%⁴ of its 2019 level and May at 60.2%⁴.⁵ Quieter planes do not mean cheaper tickets, though: July is the second most expensive month to fly.¹

How Australia compares with other destinations

Measured the same way, over the past month, Australia's $990¹ sits near the top of long-haul trips from the US.¹ Only Israel ($1,232²⁷) and New Zealand ($1,168²⁸) cost more among the destinations compared; New Zealand is $178⁴ dearer. Italy, at $937²⁹, is $53⁴ cheaper, and Hawaii, a domestic trip, costs $483³⁰, so Australia is 2.05⁴ times as much.

Conclusions

1. Timing moves the fare most. The December median of $840¹ is 1.36⁴ times February's $618¹, and the lowest fares come about 8¹ weeks before departure.
2. Sydney dominates. It took 62.4%⁴ of nonstop US-Australia passengers in 2025 and 64%¹ of fare searches.
3. The market has not fully recovered. Nonstop passengers were 70.4%⁴ of 2019 in 2025, while passenger flights (scheduled) were at 85.0%⁴.
4. The gateways have shifted. San Francisco and Dallas/Fort Worth are above 2019 at 114.2%⁴ and 128.9%⁴, while Los Angeles, still the largest, is at 60.2%⁴.
5. A fixed $125.12⁴ per ticket is government charges, including the US passenger facility charge. It is $125.48⁴ from October 1 to December 31, 2026, and $132.62⁴ from January 2027, when Australia's departure charge goes up to A$80²³.²³