Despite months of chaos, complaints and flight cancellations, Qantas and VirginAustralia have been quietly almost doubling fares on some domestic routes and bumping up others significantly. 7NEWS
have been quietly almost doubling fares on some domestic routes and bumping up others significantly.
Travellers heading from the Gold Coast to Sydney copped a 91 per cent increase, with a 90 per cent increase on Cairns to Brisbane fares, an 87 per cent increase on Adelaide to Melbourne fares, and an 85 per cent increase on Darwin to Sydney fares. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said at the time that the company fuel bill would be $1.8 billion more than it was pre-pandemic.Credit:“Qantas will respond to the high fuel prices by reducing capacity over July and August 2022 and increasing fares,” theVirgin Australia Chief Executive Jayne Hrdlicka said at the time that her airline had put through two fare increases.
Other domestic routes that felt the smaller fare increases, ranging 4 to 8 per cent, include Perth to Learmonth , Canberra to Melbourne, and Canberra to Gold Coast.Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Brett Fraser said while demand was still strong, the price hikes could become an issue.“Any increase in costs associated with travel will typically have a flow on effect for Queensland’s visitor economy,” said Fraser.