Jetstar slips to third on overseas travel list

Jetstar has lost its ranking as Australia’s second most popular international airline.

Jetstar had the third largest share of the international travel market in and out of Australia in June. Picture: Chris Raezer

Jetstar has lost its ranking as Australia’s second most popular international airline, as travellers continue to move away from low-fare carriers for overseas trips.

Data compiled by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed Singapore Airlines had the second largest share of the international market in and out of Australia in June, for the first time in more than six years.

Qantas remained No 1 with 17.5 per cent, followed by Singapore on 9 per cent, with Jetstar slipping to third on 8.5 per cent.

It was the first time in nearly four years that the Qantas Group did not hold the top two spots, with Jetstar’s market share peaking at 9.5 per cent in 2016.

The decline coincided with a general move away from low-cost carriers, which saw their total market share shrink from 19 per cent in June 2016 to 14.2 per cent in June this year.

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A Jetstar spokesman would not comment on the overall decline in low-cost carriers’ market share, but said the June data was affected by an aircraft being out of action.

“We saw a slight dip in capacity in June with one of our Boeing 787s undergoing scheduled maintenance,” he said.

Aviation consultant Neil Hansford suggested Jetstar was managing its capacity carefully, in an international market where many foreign carriers had reduced seats into Australia.

The strong performance by Singapore Airlines was attributed to targeted changes in their Australian operations, including an 11 per cent capacity increase out of Brisbane and a 7 per cent boost for Adelaide, with further expansion in the pipeline.

“From October 1, Perth will welcome the second 787-10 to ­operate to the city, which will increase capacity on the route by around 7 per cent,” spokesman Karl Schubert said.

“All of these changes have been made to better cater for the growing demand for travel to and from Australia that we’ve seen continue to increase over the past two years.”

Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Jayson Westbury said Singapore Airlines had a good reputation and was benefiting from a major campaign by the Singapore Tourism Board.

“Singapore as a destination and a stopover is having a renaissance, and as a result Singapore Airlines have increased their frequencies and capacity out of ­almost all major cities,” Mr Westbury said.

The BITRE data showed the two most popular international routes out of Australia in June were Melbourne-Singapore and Sydney-Singapore.