Adelaide to Alice Springs flights: How long do flights cost & how long do they take?

Qantas and Virgin Australia run direct Adelaide to Alice Springs flights, which are much quicker than driving up the Stuart Highway or taking the Greyhound bus from Adelaide to Alice Springs.

The drive from Adelaide to Alice Springs is a tough old slog up the Stuart Highway. You’re looking at 1,535km, and an Adelaide to Alice Springs driving time of 15 and a quarter hours.

Given the proposition of this long drive through the South Australian outback, it’s perhaps no surprise that most travellers prefer to take a flight from Adelaide to Alice Springs Airport.

Adelaide brings food tours of the fabulous Central Market, Torrens River cruises, swimming with dolphins and the chance to walk across the roof of the Adelaide Oval. To book Adelaide accommodation, step this way. For a full range of Adelaide tours and experiences, explore here.

Alice Springs offers hot air ballooning over the rugged outback, spectacular adventures in the West MacDonnell Ranges and quirky camel rides. For a bigger range of Alice Springs activities, step this way, and for Alice Springs accommodation, book here.

Two Australian airlines run direct flights from Adelaide to Alice Springs – Qantas and Virgin Australia. This offers a degree of competition that stops Adelaide to Alice Springs flights being quite as outrageously expensive as some monopoly routes in Australia.

Fares for flights from Adelaide to Alice Springs

Using Webjet to search a couple of months in advance, the cheapest fares for one-way Adelaide to Alice Springs flights tend to be around $175 with Virgin Australia. The cheapest Qantas deals for Adelaide to Alice Springs flights are from $215. These things fluctuate, of course, but these prices are a reasonable benchmark to work from.

The Virgin Australia flights are scheduled to take two hours and ten minutes, the Qantas flights two hours and five minutes.

Of course, you might well prefer to turn the drive up the Stuart Highway into a road trip. Believe it or not, there are some things worth seeing in the South Australian outback before crossing the border into the Northern Territory.

The Adelaide to Alice Springs drive skirts the Barossa Valley and Clare Valley wine regions before joining the Stuart Highway at Port Augusta. From there, quirky South Australian activities and attractions include the once-secret military town of Woomera and Lake Hart, a giant salt lake. There’s also Coober Pedy, the opal mining town where 70% of people live underground in dug-out homes.

Adelaide to Alice Springs by Greyhound bus

Of course, if you want to do the journey the truly grim way, you can take the Greyhound bus from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The journey to Alice Springs from Adelaide on the Greyhound takes 20 hours and 40 minutes. Fun, fun, fun!

Once at your destination, highlights include Alice Springs camel tours with the MacDonnell Ranges as a backdrop.