Qantas discounts 1 million seats in wake of dire year for small Aussie airlines

Qantas’s competitors are dropping like flies, and amid the carnage the national carrier has announced a massive sale.

Qantas says it is cutting prices on one million tickets in a seven-day sale.

The sale began on Monday, and applies for some one-way fares on 85 routes that depart between October 2024 and July 2025.

A spokesperson says there are discounts of up to 30 per cent.

Fares to major routes such as Melbourne to Sydney are going for $129 and Gold Coast to Sydney for $109. Key tourism routes like Brisbane to Proserpine and Albury to Brisbane are also discounted.

Olympians returning from Paris piled off Qantas planes to joyous greetings in Sydney two weeks ago. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

In announcing Monday’s sale, Qantas spruiked the latest airline scorecard results, showing the airline was the best in July when it came to departing on time; 74.1 per cent of the time wheels left tarmac when they were supposed to, ahead of 73 per cent at Virgin.

The major CrowdStrike outage affecting Microsoft systems in mid-July hurt businesses in most fields around the world.

This week’s Qantas sale applies to some one-way fares that depart between October 2024 and July 2025. Picture: NewsWire / Ben Clark

Qantas has tumbled down the World Airline Award rankings of late, though.

The Flying Kangaroo has gone from fifth to 17th and now 24th in the past three years.

The international airline awards, announced in June, demoted Virgin Australia from 46th to 54th, and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar fell from 69th to 74th.

In February, new Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson announced a half-year pre-tax $1.25bn profit, a 13 per cent decline on the corresponding result 12 months earlier.

It has been a tumultuous year in Australian airline boardrooms.

Bonza went into voluntary administration in April, less than 18 months after its inaugural flight.

It has now come to light 60,000 customers are out of pocket, plus 323 staff are owed wages and annual leave, while 120 trade creditors have been short-changed.

On July 30, Rex went into voluntary administration, cancelling flights between the major cities, though regional routes are still flying.

Qantas and Virgin have offered to accommodate passengers with defunct Rex tickets without charging any additional fees.

Last week, the Rex administrators applied to the Federal Court to have the sale deadline pushed out to November.

Originally published as Qantas discounts 1 million seats in wake of dire year for small Aussie airlines