International airfares surge up to 47 per cent

Airfares to overseas destinations have soared in just two months. Here are the routes that have been hit hardest – and those that are now the best value.

INTERNATIONAL economy airfares have soared by as much as 47 per cent in just two months, travel deals website KAYAK has revealed.

While fares to near neighbours such as New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore are either cheaper or only slightly more expensive than they were in May, the cost of flying to more far-flung destinations has suddenly skyrocketed.

Return economy fares out of Sydney have jumped the most: Copenhagen is up 47 per cent, Athens and Honolulu are up 32 per cent, and Istanbul is up 29 per cent.

Melburnians are also paying massively more than they were in May. The average cost of a flight to Bangkok is up 32 per cent and Honolulu is up 31 per cent.

Bali has boomed across the board; the cost of a Melbourne outbound flight is up 33 per cent, while Brisbane is up 28 per cent, Sydney 26 per cent, Adelaide 24 per cent and Perth 29 per cent.

KAYAK found an average return economy international fare in July out of Australian cities was approximately $1761 – a 14 per cent increase from May.

Flying to London is significantly more expensive. Fares out of Brisbane are up 22 per cent, while out of Melbourne they’re up 19 per cent, out of Adelaide they’re up 15 per cent, and out of Sydney they’re up 10 per cent. Pre-pandemic, average return domestic fares to London were just over $1500, but they’re now about a thousand dollars more expensive.

Airlines point to the surging price of aviation fuel as the reason for fare increases, with International Air Travel Association data from June showing fuel was now taking up 24 per cent of operating expenses, up from 19 per cent last year.

Elia San Martin, KAYAK’s general manager for the Asia/Pacific region, said there were a number of ways Aussie travellers could avoid paying top dollar.

“Our search data indicates that the most affordable month to book a return international flight in the rest of 2022 is in October and in November for a return domestic flight,” she said.

Budget-conscious flyers should also be flexible with dates, and choose midweek flights, she said.

“Flying out and returning midweek versus the weekend can be cheaper on short haul and longer haul,” Ms San Martin said. “It is a similar story for shorter breaks. Travelling on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday generally may be a lot more affordable than at other times of the week.”

She also said looking at “hacker fares” – buying an outbound one-way ticket with one airline, and a return trip with another airline – also sometimes helped save passengers on their total outlay.

While many destinations are proving to be more pricey, some popular routes are a bit cheaper than they were in May. Flights from Melbourne to Auckland are down 6 per cent, while fares from Brisbane to Nadi have declined 4 per cent, and from Melbourne to Singapore they’re 1 per cent cheaper.

A Flight Centre spokesperson said demand for international travel was strong despite the generally escalating prices.

“In economy, there are still some decent fares on offer, although it might be harder to find them,” he said.

Fares to holiday hotspots such as Bali, Fiji and Hawaii were typically more than what people were paying prior to the pandemic, the spokesperson said, but they were still cheaper than what they were 10 years ago.

“The big challenge at the moment is lack of capacity. The good news is that we believe fares will start to normalise as supply increases, which will gradually happen over the next few months,” the Flight Centre spokesperson said.

Originally published as International airfares surge up to 47 per cent