Seoul, Bali and Auckland Australia’s most well served destinations

Finding affordable plane seats out of Australia is no easy task but there is one route that has attracted multiple airline attention.

Finding a seat on a direct flight to Japan or the US over Christmas could be tricky with limited supply out of Australia but there’s one destination with much more capacity than pre-Covid.

No less than five airlines will be operating non-stop flights from Sydney to Seoul from next month, making South Korea as well served as Bali and Auckland.

Prior to the Covid crisis, just two carriers were flying between Sydney and Seoul — Asiana and Korean Air — which have now been joined by Qantas, Jetstar and South Korean low cost carrier T’way.

Qantas’s four flights a week operated by an A330 will start on December 10, with T’way due to start its Seoul-Sydney services on December 23.

The only other routes being serviced by five airlines out of Sydney are Bali and Auckland, while four different carriers fly to Los Angeles, Nadi, Queenstown and Singapore.

Other destinations that have scored more airline seats in the wake of the pandemic include Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok with three carriers now flying to both, up from two in early 2020.

Bamboo Airways has boosted capacity out of Sydney and Melbourne to Vietnam, flying to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Author of Tourism Crises and Destination Recovery David Beirman said with China out of the travel picture for the moment, it made sense that the focus had shifted to other Asian destinations such as South Korea.

As a result “everyone wanted to get in on the act” which explained the sudden capacity boom, he said.

“Despite the political tensions we read about from time to time between North and South Korea, people are still fascinated to go there,” Dr Beirman said.

“It’s a different destination, very good value for money with great food.”

Whether there was enough demand to support five airlines would become apparent fairly quickly and in the meantime, it meant travellers should be able to fly at a reasonable price.

“Airfares generally speaking have been on the rise but if you’ve got a competitive destination served by five carriers, that’s going to help keep costs down,” said Dr Beirman.

Flight Centre Australia general manager Brett Novak was less optimistic competition on the route would significantly impact fares.

He said normally more airlines competing on a route was a good thing but the current travel environment was anything but typical.

“There are multiple carriers operating between Sydney and Los Angeles, and we haven’t really seen competitive engagement on this route yet,” Mr Novak said.

“Eventually though, as capacity increases, airlines will need to start engaging with competitive pricing to start filling these seats.”

Webjet data showed one-way fares to Seoul in December started at around $1600 with Asiana Airlines, and $2400 with Qantas.

Low cost carrier T’Way had no availability in its first week of operations out of Sydney but from early January economy seats could be nabbed for about $1000, and business seats for $2000.

From Melbourne, the biggest increase in capacity since borders reopened late last year was to Delhi in India, as a result of daily Air India flights and new Qantas services.

There were also 52 per cent more seats to Kuala Lumpur while Melbourne residents could for the first time fly non-stop to Hanoi in Vietnam, and to Dallas with Qantas from December 3.

Dr Beirman said the fact most of the extra capacity was concentrated in our own region made a lot of sense.

“When you have a recovery from a long term crisis, travellers tend to go to nearby destinations rather than long haul ones,” he said.

“That trend has also happened in Europe and North America where people aren’t travelling as far as they used to, partly because they’re concerned about new restrictions being imposed.”