Overnight Flights from Australia to Asia

Most flights from Australia to cities in Asia operate during the daytime. This includes almost every Qantas and Jetstar flight to Asia, except for one Qantas flight to Japan.

The opposite is true in the reverse direction. Most services from Asia to Australia are overnight flights, including all Qantas flights, although there are a handful of daytime flights from Asia to Australia that count as exceptions.

The main reason for this trend is the time difference between cities on the Australian east coast and cities in Asia. This makes it more commercially viable for airlines to fly in the day from Australia to Asia, then back overnight. In many cases, this allows airlines to offer better connections and provides better aircraft utilisation.

Many travellers prefer daytime flights, but there are some advantages to overnight flights. For example, business travellers can avoid “wasting” a day of work in the air. For those who can sleep on planes, redeye flights can also save you the cost of booking a hotel room for that night.

This article lists all of the overnight flights currently available from Australia to destinations in Asia, sorted by Australian departure airport. For each route listed below, we’ve included the airline, flight number and current schedule. Note that the schedules may vary on different days of the week or when daylight savings is on.

For the purpose of this article, we are not including flights to destinations in the Middle East. Although the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are technically part of Asia, the majority of flights from Australia to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are overnight – so these are not hard to find.

Overnight flights from Adelaide to Asia

There are currently no overnight flights scheduled from Adelaide to Asia.

Cathay Pacific had previously planned to launch an overnight Adelaide-Hong Kong service in March 2024, but those flights have since been removed from sale.

Overnight flights from Brisbane to Asia

Overnight flights from Melbourne to Asia

Overnight flights from Perth to Asia

Note that All Nippon Airways (ANA) will resume its Perth to Narita route from late October 2023.

Due to its position on the west coast of Australia, you can also find redeye flights from Perth to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Auckland and occasionally Hobart.

Overnight flights from Sydney to Asia

Although there are around a dozen overnight flights from Sydney to Asia, the curfew at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport means all flights must depart before 11pm. This means that overnight flights from Sydney to destinations such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur need to leave earlier than would be ideal – resulting in an arrival time at the destination between 3am and 5am. This is also the reason that Singapore Airlines does not have an overnight service from Sydney to Singapore.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.