35% increase in seats leads to 8% cost reduction for Premium seats

[OATEK]

Some key take-outs from the article in the Australian:

"January statistics published by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed the average percentage of seats filled across all services was 81.5 per cent, down from 86.5 per cent the same time a year ago."

"A 35 per cent increase in the number of seats was the main reason for the fall, after airlines such as Qantas, Jetstar, Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Emirates bulked up capacity late last year."

"As the wanderlust has cooled, airfares have done the same with Flight Centre observing a 13 per cent fall in economy fares in the second half of 2023, and an 8 per cent dip in premium cabin fares."

This suggests that the impact of refusing the extra seats from QR may not have been significant compared to the increases from other quarters.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/packed-planes-relegated-to-history-as-airlines-beefup-capacity-into-australia/news-story/bc85b614d03cc8e953f9abc6ce90711b

 

[Mwenenzi]

The March 2024 BITRE Airport traffic data report

Airport traffic data

These files contain monthly and annual details of passenger and aircraft movement data on scheduled regular Public Transport services at selected Australian airports.

www.bitre.gov.au

 

[CaptJCool]

8%

that's after the price hikes of how much?

 

[Forg]

8%

that's after the price hikes of how much?

It strikes me that with airfares, “street price” is the be-all & end-all, at least when talking non-business travel.

And ”recommended retail price” seems to have little connection with the real prices people choose to pay, prices which result from airlines having huge sales all the time vs. having few discounts with infrequent availability.

For me, the Great Unwashed, it’s hard to work-out what’s going on, what prices I should be holding out for ‘cos “every airline” will eventually have a sale at those prices sometime during the year. Or, 1.5yrs ago, they won’t.

 

[CaptJCool]

Flexi Fare is the RRP

The discount fares are usually in 6-8 increments - the bottom is what you see advertised as “cheapest”

For J
Yes. You are right
Domestic J has the fairly standard Lowest advertised price which the airline will rarely go below (so you can be assured if you book it gonna only be higher later)
In August 23 QF lowered its J fares to about what they are today and do have a recent very tiny reduction sale ($10 less)

For international J
The lowest J has been slightly sub $6,000 with QF J sales at $8,499 unless it’s Santiago Chile or Vancouver where those sales start with a 5

International F
The QF floor price TO LONDON was $9,999. Recently was $13,501 and $13,999 (ended 27 March)
The lowest F to London is JAL $11,022
SQ & BA are otherwise less expensive than QF