Despite Qantas debacle, travellers have more choice
It’s been a week of turmoil in aviation, but Australians are looking at a brighter future when it comes to overseas travel.
Flight boards at international airports are looking much livelier than they were a year ago, thanks to a surge in capacity from airlines eager to tap into Australians’ insatiable desire for travel. Several destinations have significantly more airline seats available compared with pre-Covid, led by India at 293 per cent of 2019 numbers and South Korea at 126 per cent. Qatar, Canada and Indonesia are also tracking above 2019 levels while Japan, Singapore the US and New Zealand are within striking distance.
China is enjoying a rapid recovery after borders reopened in January, with capacity back to 79 per cent of what it was. For the first time in more than three years, Australians can fly non-stop from Melbourne or Sydney to multiple cities in mainland China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing. Brisbane will also get direct flights to Guangzhou from November 17 when China Southern returns to the Queensland capital. China Eastern is expected to follow soon after with flights to Shanghai.
Vietnam is another destination seeing a lot more Australians than four years ago, thanks to the entry of Vietjet and Bamboo Airways, and the return of Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar. Prior to the pandemic, Vietnam was Sydney’s fastest growing market, and that has accelerated since travel restarted.
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Competition on South Korea routes is also at a high, with five airlines flying out of Sydney to Seoul, three more than pre-Covid. As well as Qantas and Jetstar, travellers can reach the South Korean capital on T’way Air, Asiana or Korean Air.
Heading towards the end of the year, significantly more airline seats will come online, with big increases in capacity planned by Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, United, Delta and LATAM. Although Qatar Airways’ application to increase services to Australia was controversially rejected, Turkish Airlines remains hopeful of starting flights to Melbourne and possibly Sydney by December. Initially, the services from Istanbul will be on Boeing 787-9s via Singapore, with a view to eventually doing non-stop flights.
From late October, flight frequency on routes to LA, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore will jump, helping to put downward pressure on fares. As of September 1, travellers can fly direct from Melbourne to Santiago with LATAM and, from December 8, Air Calin will resume flights to Noumea.
It’s not just Sydney and Melbourne enjoying the heightened return of international carriers. Brisbane Airport now serves 28 overseas destinations compared with 33 pre-Covid, and has welcomed three new airlines in United, Qatar and Vietjet. Perth Airport will welcome Vietjet from November, adding Ho Chi Minh City to its international route map. All Nippon Airways is also due to begin flights to Tokyo from Perth from October 29, and Batik Air Malaysia has just started Perth-Auckland, in addition to six-flights a week to Kuala Lumpur. After a slow start, Adelaide is now connected to six overseas ports and Canberrans can escape the cold on twice weekly Fiji Airways’ services, increasing to three times a week from October. Cairns and Gold Coast are working on the expansion of their international networks, aided by new Virgin Australia flights to Tokyo (Haneda) and Bali.
In the years ahead, new longer-range aircraft will provide more opportunities for airlines to extend their route maps, with Australian travellers likely to benefit. Just
as Turkish Airlines is looking at non-stop flights from Istanbul, Qantas plans to use A350-1000s on much-anticipated Project Sunrise flights between Sydney, London and New York. Narrow body aircraft will also be put to greater use on short to medium-haul international routes, with the possibility of Brisbane-Hong Kong, Brisbane-Manila and Canberra-Singapore utilising A321XLRs. With a maximum range of 8700km, Qantas says the aircraft will open
up a whole range of markets in Southeast Asia considered unsuitable for wide-body jets.
As well as providing more options for Australian travellers, the increasing number of direct flights represents a much needed lifeline for tourism operators. Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison says key markets such as India are already helping to deliver more travellers to Australia than ever.
“The increased aviation capacity is good news for the Australian tourism industry as it will place downward pressure on airfares and keep inbound arrivals numbers trending in the right direction,” says Harrison.