Just tried a few things through the carbon offset system QF offers:
https://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/offset-my-flight/global/en
Note that QF offers the carbon offset as a way of completely offsetting the carbon emissions so that your flight is carbon neutral. Unless someone can explain to me differently, this would suggest that if you fully offset, there will be no extra liability under the scheme, correct?
Anyway, here's a few comparisons (using the Carbon Offset pricing tool and the ASX announcement for one-way fares):
Flight
| Carbon Offset
| QF Price Increase
|
SYD-BNE
| 94c
| $2.79
|
SYD-PER
| $3.09
| $6.86
|
SYD-SIN-LHR
| $17.99
| $60
|
SYD-JNB
| $21.93
| $40
|
This looks like price gouging over and above the actual carbon cost. If QF wanted to stop the carbon tax increases, they could buy their own credits under their own system, and the cost would be limited to the cost of buying the offsets. That the surcharge increases are way above what the carbon costs are suggests that QF is using the carbon tax as a ruse to grab even more money and blame the government for it ("it's not us, it's the EU and the Australian carbon pricing schemes that are making us do this!").
I really dislike it when companies do this.