1 week Ago By David Richards
Is Qantas seriously trying to fleece the technology industry, simply because they have little if any competition and they know that lounge access and Qantas points is like glue that keeps industry executives paying excessive domestic and International fares. This week I decided to do a quick trip to Melbourne, two people economy, down one day back the next. The cheapest cost on Qantas for the times I wanted to travel, was a staggering $1,621.
The day prior it was $1,360 with the price rising by over $300 in 24 hours. A dive into Virgin Airways resulted in being able to buy two economy tickets that take off and land at the same time as the Qantas flights for $866. While I won’t have access to the Qantas lounge I will save $755 on what is a simple one hour trip to Melbourne.
I have been flying Qantas for 40 years and while I have a Qantas flight booked to go to CES in Las Vegas in January that will cost me thousands, I am still paying thousands more than what I could have got by flying another airline. ChannelNews attracts over 500,000 unique visitors a month, the bulk are tech industry executives working in retail, supply, logistics, marketing, merchandising and a recent research study revealed that the bulk are not only hard core flyers on airlines they also “fed up” with being charged excessive fees by Qantas both domestically and internationally. Many of these executives travel business or premium economy when flying overseas, with executives who work for overseas Companies, telling ChannelNews that their parent Companies are baulking at the costs of in out and around Australia flights on Qantas aircraft.
In their latest defence Qantas Airways is pointing the finger at Coldplay for the unseasonably high airfares since the collapse of Rex Airlines. However, I don’t see how that applies to flights on a Monday Morning when Coldplay has left Australia and are on the NZ Auckland leg of their tour. Earlier this week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released a report detailing domestic airline competition in Australia, which found that prices had more than doubled on some domestic routes since the collapse of Rex in July.
The ACCC report showed a 13.3% average increase in domestic fares since July. Airfares from Canberra to Gold Coast jumped by 171%, and Brisbane to Hamilton Island leaped 122%, the standout was the 95% price jump for an Adelaide to Melbourne flight.
Qantas, budget carrier, Jetstar which is owned by Qantas, and Virgin carry 98% of domestic passengers. Even the ACCC is getting jack of the monopoly that Qantas and Jetstar have on the market, in Australia with the airline also accused of monopolising slots at airports in Australia to keep out competition. The ACCC claims that a third competitive airline was needed to avoid “higher airfares and reduced choice of consumers”.
Qantas claims that allegations that the airline hoards peak landing slots at Sydney Airport to edge out rival carriers are unjustified. Qantas domestic chief executive Markus Svensson told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that the airline took seriously the space it receives for flights. He insisted that Qantas uses nearly 94 per cent of its allocation and is not cynically cancelling flights to maintain dominance.
Ironically as Qantas was jacking up prices to what’s been described as “ridiculous levels, jet fuel has fallen 41% since September 2023. “will typically account for between 15% and 25% of an airline’s operating costs” has decreased in price by 41% since September 2023. “This is the lowest price recorded for jet fuel since September 2021.
” In September Qantas Group captured 68.8% of the Australian domestic travel market of which a large chunk were business executives including the technology industry who are now having to pass on rising travel costs to customers..
