Millions booked to travel over spring break but airlines now ‘match fit’

More than 3 million people are booked to fly through Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports in the next two weeks. Here’s what airlines say they are doing to cope.

Melbourne Airport is expecting close to 1.5 million people through its gates over the next fortnight. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Enrique Ascui

Airlines and airports have promised the chaos of the April and July school holidays will not be repeated over the next two weeks, with millions of people booked to fly interstate.

This weekend almost 200,000 people were booked to travel through Sydney Airport, and Melbourne Airport was forecasting close to 1.5 million domestic and international passengers for the two weeks of school holidays.

About 1 million were expected at Brisbane Airport over the next fortnight and travellers were urged to “plan ahead”.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the carrier was feeling very “match fit” going into the September school holidays, and Qantas assured travellers extra staff would help minimise any delays or disruptions.

Since April more than 1500 people had joined the Qantas Group including cabin crew, airport staff and engineers.

In addition ground handling companies had increased their workforce by 25 per cent since Easter, which was a 10 per cent improvement on the mid-year holidays.

This weekend will provide the first major test with footy finals and school holidays in Queensland and Victoria filling up flights along the east coast.

Qantas and Jetstar were expecting to fly almost 450,000 customers on 3700 flights, with Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns and the Gold Coast the most popular destinations.

In the event of two interstate teams — the Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans — ending up in the AFL grand final, Qantas pledged to bolster capacity into Melbourne next weekend.

An extra two flights from Brisbane and one from Sydney would be scheduled with one way fares starting at $262 and $230 respectively.

Up to 340 seats would also be available using frequent flyer points.

For Virgin Australia, Queensland was the place to be in September with bookings to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Whitsundays and Cairns up 15 per cent on June-July.

East coast airports continued to encourage travellers to allow plenty of time before their flight with more than 3 million people expected through their gates over the next fortnight.

“We’ve seen a surge in the number of people choosing to drive themselves to Brisbane Airport, because they want to be certain of arriving on time,” said Brisbane Airport Corporation spokesman Stephen Beckett.

“As a result, our car parks are above 90 per cent capacity daily.”

Along with huge crowds through the domestic terminal, Mr Beckett said international travel was picking up out of Brisbane with flights to Canada, Bali, New Zealand and Fiji experiencing strong demand.

“The numbers reflect what everybody is seeing in their social media feeds,” Mr Beckett said. “Queenslanders are on the move, ticking off their bucket lists, with thousands venturing overseas for the first time in two or three years.”

For many travellers, the mayhem of previous holiday periods was not yet forgotten with insurance provider Allianz revealing a huge spike in claims for flight cancellations and lost luggage.

Compared to the same period in 2019, claims for domestic cancellations leapt 279 per cent in April and June.

Executive head of travel with Allianz Partners, Damien Arthur said the high level of claims showed the increased awareness of the importance of travel insurance.

“Covid and its impact on travel has given Australian travellers a sharper awareness of what can go wrong on their holiday, and an increased appetite to understand the detail of their insurance policy,” Mr Arthur said.

“The new travel landscape has made travel insurance a must have, even for a domestic trip.”

Although Sydney Airport had added hundreds of staff since April, another “jobs fair” was planned for Wednesday, September 21, at the international terminal.

More than 36 business operators would be on hand to meet people interested in roles with major airlines, high-end retailers, hotels, baggage handling, security and ground services.

Originally published as Millions booked to travel over spring break but airlines now ‘match fit’