2 hours Ago By Madeleine Heffernan
Flying domestically has become more affordable during the peak holiday season, but bargain flights on the country’s busiest routes have all but disappeared. The average price per passenger for all domestic flights has fallen almost 20 per cent over the past two months, new data shows. Mother and daughter Bronwyn and Stephanie Foott paid $340 each for return Melbourne-Brisbane flights.
Credit: Wayne Taylor But the Sydney-Melbourne route, one of the world’s busiest , has surged in price since Qantas and Virgin lost competition on domestic flights following the collapse of challengers Rex and Bonza. Before Rex’s collapse in July, a return Melbourne-Sydney flight cost an average $385 . The average booking price is now $550, a jump of 42 per cent, according to data from online travel agent Webjet.
Separate figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics show the cheapest available flight between the two cities became 47 per cent more expensive in the final months of last year. Bargain-hunters could snap up a $189 flight between Sydney and Melbourne in October 2024. Come December, the cheapest available flight between the two cities was $279, the official data shows.
Similarly, the cheapest available Sydney-Brisbane airfare was $282 in December, 67.9 per cent more expensive than three months earlier. The Brisbane-Melbourne cheapest flight remained steady over the three months at $318.
At Melbourne Airport on Wednesday, mother and daughter Stephanie and Bronwyn Foott were departing on a $340 return flight to Brisbane, booked months ago. Their flight was delayed an hour, but the pair were happy with their booking. Jetstar planes at Sydney Airport Credit: Dominic Lorrimer “I think if we’d left it a month or two, we would have been playing double or triple that,” said Bronwyn.
Another traveller, Matilda Eder, had used a combination of Qantas points and less than $100 cash to fly to Melbourne from Sydney. Eder has been switching to Qantas insurance to accumulate points for frequent travel. “I want to travel a lot, but it is really, really expensive.
A lot of the people we work with said, ‘You need to get onto points’. And so I’ve thrown myself into it.” Eder said she was shocked by the price of flying from Sydney to Canberra for work.
“My return flights are always over $500, which is a lot of money for a short flight,” she said. Sydneysider Matilda Eder used a combination of Qantas points and cash to fly to Melbourne. Credit: Wayne Taylor Webjet said passengers flying around Australia in mid-January paid an average $435 return.
This is 19.4 per cent cheaper than the average price of $540 in mid-November. Over the same period, return airfares for the Sydney-Melbourne route became 1.
1 per cent dearer ($550), while Brisbane-Sydney return flights were 0.2 per cent cheaper ($490). Flights between Melbourne and Brisbane became 13.
8 per cent more expensive to $749, Webjet said. The Sydney-Melbourne sector had 9.2 million seats available last year, making it the fifth-busiest route but still short of pre-COVID-19 travel numbers.
Qantas Group, the country’s biggest airline, said the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics and Webjet data represented a small portion of overall flights. A spokesman said domestic fares for Qantas and Jetstar were flat in December 2024 compared to the previous year. “Given the seasonality of travel, there are big shifts in demand between peak and off-peak periods at different times of the year, and therefore the cost of airfares can vary from one month to another,” he said.
“This month, we are seeing really strong demand for travel to Melbourne with the Australian Open, which is driving airfares higher on flights there.” Rival Virgin Australia said it remained focused on “providing exceptional value and choice to Australian travellers”. “We continue to offer frequent sale activity where customers can pick up great value fares.
For example, this week Virgin Australia released sale fares starting from as low as $57 (Sydney-Ballina, one-way Economy Lite) for travel between March and September,” a spokesperson said. Flight Centre Travel Group leisure CEO James Kavanagh tipped better prices for travellers this year as airlines introduced new routes. He said the top five domestic destinations since the start of December were Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Qantas on Wednesday announced changes to its loyalty program that will give frequent flyers the ability to earn more points when flying but raise the points needed for seat redemptions or upgrades. Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.
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