Airfares soaring as demand for travel outstrips airline seats

Australian travellers are finding it hard to land an affordable seat on an international flight in coming months, as airlines struggle to keep up with demand.

Cathay Pacific is one of the airlines struggling to rebuild capacity in the face of ongoing Covid restrictions in Hong Kong and China. Picture: Brendan Radke

Australian travellers are being disadvantaged by the slow return of airline capacity in the market with airfares soaring in response.

The hip-pocket pain is highest in the premium cabins with travellers out of Melbourne and Brisbane facing extraordinary prices due largely to the lack of airline options.

Data provided by Webjet showed business class fares on routes like Melbourne-Los Angeles and Brisbane-LA were on average $12,071 and $9925 return.

On routes where more options existed, such as Bali and Singapore, fares were a more affordable $1317 and $2421 return.

Skyscanner travel expert Naomi Hahn said supply and demand was always a major driver for the cost of airfares, and after two years of staying home Australians were desperate to travel.

“We’re seeing renewed importance being placed on travel with 69 per cent of Australian survey respondents placing more importance on travel this year compared to pre-pandemic,” Ms Hahn said.

“The strong demand is meeting and sometimes outpacing available seats which causes higher prices for tickets.”

Don’t Forget Travel Group ­director Andrew Sullivan said business class seats were proving hard to come by in the northern summer period, with return fares as high as $14,000 for London flights, compared to $5000-$7000 pre-Covid.

As a result some travellers were flying economy from Australia to Singapore, and then changing airlines in order to fly in a premium class to Europe.

“We’re finding deals of $7000- $8000 (in business return) with Turkish Air or Lufthansa for example, but that’s still above what you would’ve paid before the pandemic,” Mr Sullivan said.

“There’s just a general shortage of flights and capacity because airlines are still recruiting and retraining staff and recommissioning aircraft to get back to 2019 levels.”

International Air Transport Association director-general Willie Walsh said the Asia-Pacific region was being held back in its travel recovery by border policies of countries like China and Japan.

As a result many airlines that previously operated at high capacity to Australia were unable to provide regular services or unable to offer opportunities for transit.

Mr Walsh said China’s zero-Covid approach needed to change, and he urged Japan to take “bolder steps towards recovery and opening up”.

“While Japan has taken steps to allow travel, there is no clear plan for the reopening of Japan to all inbound visitors or tourists,” Mr Walsh said.

As one of the airlines hardest hit by the drawn out pandemic, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific continued to operate at a fraction of its 2019 capacity to Australia.

More than 50 of its aircraft remained in storage at Alice Springs, and Cathay’s acting head of southwest Pacific, Richard Jones, said they faced a long rebuild.

Originally published as Airfares soaring as demand for travel outstrips airline seats