Earlier this year, the Australian government made 800,000 half-price domestic plane tickets available as part of its Tourism Aviation Network Support (TANS) program. Many of the half-price seats sold out within days of going on sale in April 2021. But there are still plenty of discounted seats available on some routes.
The half-price flights were made available to book until 31 July 2021, or sold out – whichever was sooner – for travel until 30 September 2021. This means you only have until Saturday to snap up the remaining seats.
Seats on the most popular interstate routes, like Brisbane-Darwin, already sold out months ago. But we’ve found plenty of half-price domestic tickets still available on other routes.
Admittedly, some of the routes with half-price seats currently available are not that useful due to current interstate border closures. This is one of the problems with the TANS scheme, which only covers interstate travel to 15 selected tourist destinations.
If you’re eyeing a route that is currently affected by border closures, you could still book now for travel in late September, in the hope that interstate travel will once again be possible by then. But that could be risky if you’re in a state such as NSW at the moment. (At least most airlines will allow you to cancel your trip for a credit voucher if you can’t travel.)
Which routes still have seats available for 50% off?
Routes with half-price seats still available include:
- Adelaide-Avalon ($32 on Jetstar)
- Melbourne-Launceston ($55 on Virgin Australia or $70 on Qantas)
- Melbourne-Gold Coast ($57 on Jetstar)
- Adelaide-Melbourne ($59 on Rex, $70 on Virgin Australia or $88 on Qantas)
- Melbourne-Hobart ($73 on Virgin Australia or $90 on Qantas)
- Adelaide-Kangaroo Island ($74 on Rex or $80 on Qantas)
- Melbourne-Devonport ($89 on Qantas)
- Adelaide-Gold Coast ($90 on Virgin Australia)
- Melbourne-Merimbula ($95 on Qantas)
- Brisbane-Adelaide ($110 on Virgin Australia)
- Adelaide-Alice Springs ($120 on Virgin Australia)
- Brisbane-Broome ($285 on Qantas – but limited dates)
Note that this is not an exhaustive list. Other airlines and routes may also still have discounted tickets left.
As a reminder, the following Australian destinations were included in the half-price flights scheme:
- Gold Coast, QLD
- Cairns, QLD
- Whitsundays, QLD (including Proserpine & Hamilton Island)
- Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Darwin, NT
- Uluru, NT (Lasseter region)
- Alice Springs, NT
- Launceston, TAS
- Devonport, TAS
- Burnie, TAS
- Broome, WA
- Avalon, VIC (Geelong)
- Merimbula, NSW
- Adelaide, SA
- Kangaroo Island, SA
The half-price domestic tickets, if any are still available, can be booked directly on each airline’s website.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Government to halve flight prices in $1.2bn tourism plan
