Swans and Lions fans fork out double for grand final airfares

Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions fans are facing Melbourne airfares at more than twice the normal rates, forcing some to contemplate driving as cheaper places on trains fill up ahead of the first all-interstate final since 2006.

As of 1pm AEST on Monday, flights leaving either city on Friday and returning on the Sunday of the grand final weekend were around double the cost of the same trips the following week for each of the three main carriers.

Swans fans are paying double for airfares to Melbourne this weekend for the AFL grand final.Credit: Getty Images

Excluding flights on its low-cost carrier Jetstar, the starting price for a round-trip from Sydney with Qantas was $1016, compared with $499 the following weekend. Virgin return flights from Sydney were cheaper, at $684, but flights from Brisbane started at $1360, more than double what they were the week after.

On the Jetstar route to Brisbane, return flights started at an eye-watering $1807, more than three times the amount for flights the next week. Non-stop Jetstar flights are now also unavailable for returning to Brisbane on Sunday, 29th September.

On Saturday, Qantas announced it had added five flights between Brisbane and Melbourne after the Lions knocked out Geelong, in addition to 10 Sydney flights after the Swans beat Port Adelaide the day before. On Monday, it said one new flight sold out within 40 minutes of going on sale on Saturday, and all direct Melbourne to Brisbane flights for the day after the grand final had sold out within 24 hours of the Lions game.

Lions fan Adam Staines made the decision to shell out $1200 for two fares to Melbourne after Brisbane’s victory over Geelong on Saturday. Credit: Getty Images

It has since announced two further services between Melbourne and Brisbane, leaving after the final siren. Virgin said it had added 5000 seats across the finals season, noting fares close to departure times tended to be higher. Both airlines said they would continue to assess the need for additional flights.

This year’s grand final will inject more than $70 million into the Victorian economy, RMIT estimates.

Justin Brownjohn, operations manager at the RMIT Aviation Academy and a former network controller for major airlines, said adding extra flights for a special event is a complex operation, particularly as the teams involved are not known until the week before.

“It’s not as simple as putting another flight on sale. Airlines need to find the aircraft, the crew, and sometimes the slots,” he said. “In most cases, it will result in the cancellation of other services, which drives the exorbitant pricing we often see for sporting and major events.”

Of the roughly 100,000 capacity at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 17,500 tickets have been allocated to members of each club. But the chance to take in the atmosphere of the MCG on Saturday and at Friday’s grand final parade has left many fans happy to stomach higher fares before they’d guaranteed a ticket or not.

Lions fan Adam Staines, from Annerley in Brisbane, made the decision after Saturday’s game to shell out $1200 for Virgin flights for him and his six-year-old son before he even knew he had secured “nosebleed” tickets.

”My wife had gone to bed. I was looking at flights. I thought, oh yeah, this is doable. I should really check with her before taking off with the child for a week,” he said.

“I checked flights again an hour later, and a whole bunch of the options had disappeared or were a bunch more expensive. So I thought, ask for forgiveness, booked the flights, and told her about it in the morning.”

Swans fan Ashleigh Norsa, from Glenorie, says the prospect of an overnight drive, or airfares that were “far too expensive” forced her to make the early decision, at the end of the home and away season, to book a $157 return train ticket from Sydney to her first grand final.

As of Monday afternoon, tickets were sold out on Friday trains to Melbourne, with seats in first class available on Thursday and some availability on trains leaving Melbourne after Saturday’s final siren.

A Transport NSW spokesperson said regional trains were running with six instead of the usual five cars to accommodate increased demand this week. The service typically only runs twice daily.

Swans member of 27 years, Melinda Blackmore, who has tickets for her fourth grand final, said while she flew to see the Swans claim their last premiership in 2012, she is choosing to make the eight-and-a-half hour drive from Campbelltown this year because flights have become too expensive.

“It’s fun to see the Swans scarves hanging out of the windows of other cars – people who couldn’t get flights or find it easy to drive – and there’s a lot of horn honking and waving to each other.”