Millions of Australians breathed a collective sigh of relief when Australia’s opened its borders back in February, allowing fully vaccinated travellers to come and go as they please.
However, many of these excited Aussies got a shock when they loaded up Sky Scanner and noticed that pretty much all flights were much more expensive than normal. Initially, it was assumed that the flights were priced so high because so many people were booking. However, months later, flights are still costing more than usual, and travellers are wondering why.
Before you start cleaning out your cookies in hope of cheaper flights, we’ve detailed exactly why the cost is soaring through the roof.
Turns out, one of the main reasons behind the raised prices is COVID-19. Most Australian airlines have a shortage of staff, as a result of the workers who were laid off (or quit) during the pandemic when the borders were closed.
“Until international airlines return to full workforce capacity that they reduced as a result of the pandemic, we’re going to see demand for air travel exceed supply for a number of months yet, and this is going to keep upward pressure on airfares, especially to destinations in Europe and North America,” Brent Novak, General Manager at Flight Centre Australia told Escape.com.au.
However, COVID isn’t the only thing throwing a spanner in the works when it comes to flight prices. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has caused fuel prices to spike. And, as all travellers know – aeroplanes use a considerable amount of petrol, especially on long haul flights.
Both Qantas and Virgin Australia has said that they are passing the extra costs of fuel onto their customers by increasing the prices of their flights. Furthermore, Qantas not only raised their prices to cover the extra costs, but they also cut down on the number of flights they have.
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“Qantas will respond to the high fuel prices by reducing capacity over July and August 2022 and increasing fares,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wrote in its June airline report.
So, there you have it – the expensive flights popping up on your laptop are due to a combination of COVID and the current war. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t look like prices will be dropping anytime soon. What a time to be alive.
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