What time is my sunrise balloon flight?

We know, we know, it's hard to wake up before the sunrise so why are balloon flights so early?

Well, other than getting to watch beautiful sunrises, the timing of a balloon flight has a lot to do with the weather. The cool, calm weather conditions that are usually present at dawn are the best and safest conditions to fly hot air balloons in.

As the day goes on and temperatures rise, the air conditions tend to become less stable and this is much less ideal for balloon flights.

Meeting times

To ensure that our team has time to transport you out to the morning’s chosen launch site and prepare the balloon for flight, our flights generally meet 60 - 120 minutes before the time of sunrise.

As the sunrise times varies so does the approximate meeting time but it is likely to fall between these times:

January 3:45am - 5:00am

February 4:15am - 5:15am

March 4:45am – 5:45am

April 5:00am - 6:00 AEDST / 4:00am - 5:00am AEDT

May 4:30am - 5:45am

June 4:45am - 6:00am

July 4:45am- 6:00am

August - 4:15am -5:45am

September - 3:45 am – 4:45am

October - 3:45am - 4:45am AEDT / 4:00 – 5:00 AEDST

November - 3:45am – 5:00am

December - 3:45am – 4:45am

Keep in mind that these timings are a guideline only. On rare occasions your exact meeting time may fall outside of these times if deemed necessary by the pilots.

Are there afternoon Flights?

We’d love to be able to fly in the afternoon as much as you would but sadly conditions in Australia are often not conducive to flying in the afternoons. Because conditions are often much more windy, and atmospheric instability is greater in the afternoons, if we scheduled flight for afternoons we would have to cancel most of them due to unsuitable weather.

How do I find out what my exact meeting time is?

Once you are booked in for a flight, you will receive a Booking Confirmation email with a Weather Check-in phone number to call the evening before the flight. It’s is during this call that we will be able to confirm the weather suitability for the next morning’s flight and also confirm the exact meeting time for you, which is finalised based on the weather forecast.