Median domestic air fares are rising

[Melburnian1]

The latest compilation of airfare indices from BITRE suggests that median airfares, whether business, 'restricted' economy or discount economy on domestic routes are rising.

This is not surprising in view of QF and VA mostly ceasing the previous 'war.' Both have decided it's preferable to reduce the number of seats to try to gouge travellers more.

My hypothesis is that the domestic air travel market remains relatively soft, not just because of the slowdown in mining and resources in Queensland and Western Australia but also because heaps of Australians are having to cope with factors such as rising energy bills due to the idiotic, State government forced shutdown of coal burning power stations like Hazelwood in Victoria.

Naturally not everyone is affected and some sectors of the economy like takeaway food continue to do quite well from what one reads and observes, and real estate prices are continuing to rise in the two largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne (though that's more about houses rather than apartments.)

In summary, consumer confidence is muted.

https://bitre.gov.au/statistics/aviation/air_fares.aspx

Perhaps we can name these indices 'the JohnK series.'

The changes in fares will vary markedly by route but these indices provide a rough guide.

 

[TheInsider]

Seriously... If people can't afford the gas and electricity bills, then they aren't the ones who are going to be spending money on travel as it is. Nice way to bring politics into a non-political article.

 

[Melburnian1]

Seriously... If people can't afford the gas and electricity bills, then they aren't the ones who are going to be spending money on travel as it is. Nice way to bring politics into a non-political article.

That's not true in every case. Many people travel occasionally for leisure and may reduce their number of annual trip(s) or ditch air travel entirely, substituting cheaper driving (especially if more than one person - say a family - would normally travel.) If one major cost goes up far more than wages, salaries or other income, something that individuals consider 'discretionary expenditure' must give, and one of the candidates for that may be air travel.

Small business people facing increased energy costs in their businesses may also look to trim the budget for other items somewhat.

 

[moa999]

Definitely agree dom is up, but Int is down

 

[Zinger]

the idiotic, State government forced shutdown of coal burning power stations like Hazelwood in Victoria.

Actually Hazzelwood was closed by its owners due to being not economically viable.

But don't let facts get in the way of a rant.

Wage growth is at record lows meaning disposable income for travel just isn't there, just as it isn't there for other much discretionary spending. That has a flow on effect right through the economy.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I'm amazed that airfare statistics can somehow be related to dino-poop fuelled electricity generation. For the record, CS Energy CEO has openly stated that he'd be surprised if more coal fired plants were ever built in Au. CS Energy has been at the forefront of trialling carbon capture and sequestration and their realisation is that it's "not a game changer" and won't help halt the advancement of clean energy alternatives.

Moving slightly back to topic though, I wonder how many people pay the bit extra to offset their flights carbon emission? I do most times and I'm pretty happy with both QF and VA for their investment in many carbon minimisation projects.

As for airfares going up ... I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone on this forum. Judging by my QF history, my most popular route has increased by 7% over the last 7 months. I wish my salary increased by that amount, although back to that electricity side-line, I do have 30kW of solar back feeding the grid which helps pay for it!

 

[Melburnian1]

I'm amazed that airfare statistics can somehow be related to dino-poop fuelled electricity generation.

Increased energy prices in Australia are contributing to consumer sentiment being below what it would otherwise be. The airlines don't like flying more empty seats around, so the fares charged on average go up as seating capacity reduces.

By the way, coal as a source of energy has an extremely bright future in other nations such as Japan that largely lack the extremist green-left ideology we so often unfortunately see present among the intellectual elite in Australia:

Japanese government planning to build 45 new coal fired power stations to diversify supply - ABC Rural - ABC News\

We should be proud of our coal industry that creates investment and employment and despite propaganda to the contrary plays a huge role in giving citizens in both advanced and emerging economies access to affordable energy.

Have a look at South Australia to see how disastrous the alternative of relying on intermittent energy from so-called 'renewable' sources has been. As always, it's the poorest in society who are hit the hardest when ideology trumps commonsense.

 

[dajop]

Arent political discussions meant to be in the playground?

 

[OzEire]

Anyway, so back to the topic of domestic airfares.

I haven't noticed much of a change in my regular trips, but this is a small unrepresentative sample. Tiger has appeared one one of my CBR routes but there is 0% chance I'd ever take that flight so while the average cost of avail seat miles on that route (all airlines) may drop it has no effect on me personally.

I would just hope that mainline carriers will try to compete with these low fares at some point....oh wait, they own the LCCs so no need to compete.

Domestic prices will rise until we see some real competition in the market.

 

[Melburnian1]

...Domestic prices will rise until we see some real competition in the market.

The history of Australia's domestic aviation in the last 30 years does not suggest that there is room for a true, independent third player.

While others have pointed out that VA domestically is profitable (but other parts of the entity let it down, such as VAi), my perception is that it continues to struggle against the much longer established QF group.

OzEire, one of the sound reasons for your reticence in travelling on Tigerair on say MEL - CBR is its extremely limited frequency. If the flight is cancelled, you may be up the creek without a paddle as there is no guarantee you would be uplifted by VA on the same day, and the conditions of carriage do not include a requirement that the airline (and this just doesn't apply to Tigerair) facilitates your same day travel.

The BITRE is only assessing the median fares, and there will always be 'cheap' fares but the typical price of these has risen somewhat, although variable by route.

 

[amaroo]

I remember paying around $600 return SYD-BNE Y back in the 80's .... airline tickets are one of a handful of things that look cheap these days. i.e. my local F&V guy is charging around $2 for a truss tomato

 

[codash1099]

This one may affect the averages:

'Pray, pay or drive': Flight from Broome to Perth skyrockets to nearly $6k

 

[Lemon_Party]

Moving slightly back to topic though, I wonder how many people pay the bit extra to offset their flights carbon emission? I do most times and I'm pretty happy with both QF and VA for their investment in many carbon minimisation projects.

As for airfares going up ... I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone on this forum. Judging by my QF history, my most popular route has increased by 7% over the last 7 months. I wish my salary increased by that amount, although back to that electricity side-line, I do have 30kW of solar back feeding the grid which helps pay for it!

Always buy the offset, but I don't think my company does sadly.

International economy flights seem to be a lot lower now than a few years ago, particularly to Europe or US.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Always buy the offset, but I don't think my company does sadly.

International economy flights seem to be a lot lower now than a few years ago, particularly to Europe or US.

I think the international LCCs now flying to/from AU are making a real dent in int. prices, which is not being overly replicated domestically due to constraints being placed on the 2 dom LCCs by their masters (frequency being one major hurdle for at least TT). I find the QF fare watch emails to be a good record of trending prices, which is how I came up with the 7% in 7 months ... they've told me that!

 

[ajd]

Moving slightly back to topic though, I wonder how many people pay the bit extra to offset their flights carbon emission? I do most times and I'm pretty happy with both QF and VA for their investment in many carbon minimisation projects.

I buy offsets whenever I can remember for personal travel - I don't think work purchases them though. On top of the airline offset programs I do occasionally support organisations like Cool Earth (whose rainforest work is apparently one of the cheapest ways to counteract carbon emissions of any organisation in the world).

I wonder what the impact would be of having carbon offsets selected as a default and made into an opt-out thing (with fares advertised including the offset to make them not misleading, I would hope), or indeed made mandatory.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I buy offsets whenever I can remember for personal travel - I don't think work purchases them though. On top of the airline offset programs I do occasionally support organisations like Cool Earth (whose rainforest work is apparently one of the cheapest ways to counteract carbon emissions of any organisation in the world).

I wonder what the impact would be of having carbon offsets selected as a default and made into an opt-out thing (with fares advertised including the offset to make them not misleading, I would hope), or indeed made mandatory.

People generally hate opt-out style of schemes and mandatory would be a big call given that gov'ts, even with overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, continue to subsidise ancient, outdated technology hiding behind lies and cough because they're afraid of the political backlash. I wonder if we have a carbon offset built into motor vehicle fuel??

 

[JohnK]

Airfares are killing me.

Qantas has increased the SYD-BNE airfare to $170 one-way during non-sales periods and VA has increased airfare to $152 one-way. But almost impossible to find those airfares closer to travel even with availability down to N and Q class. It's not that long ago that a return airfare was less than $200 outside of sales periods.

And it's not just QF and VA. I've noticed JQ and TT have followed suit on popular days for for travel.

 

[boomy]

Airfares are killing me.

Qantas has increased the SYD-BNE airfare to $170 one-way during non-sales periods and VA has increased airfare to $152 one-way. But almost impossible to find those airfares closer to travel even with availability down to N and Q class. It's not that long ago that a return airfare was less than $200 outside of sales periods.

And it's not just QF and VA. I've noticed JQ and TT have followed suit on popular days for for travel.

This year, since I'm not chasing status, I'm booking much more JQ than QF. Fares are usually $59 BNE-SYD and $89 BNE-MEL (club JQ non-peak travel).

 

[harvyk]

Yes, dom airfares are most certainly up, and as a result we're as a family are driving, traveling international, or not going.
Whilst the airlines are probably feeling pretty smug about calling off their war, I suspect Tourism Australia isn't too happy about it, because as a result it is cheaper for me to take my family overseas, than to take them on a holiday in AU.

 

[Hvr]

So is there any real justification for the fare increases or are they just being mean?