iscover
Domestic airfares have gone up by more than 10 percentage points since Rex axed its jet services, according to the latest BITRE data.
The “best discount” fare in September is 12.5 percentage points higher than in July, with standard “restricted economy” fares up 12.3 percentage points.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
Best discount fares for September are at 70 per cent of July 2003 index levels – the highest since March – while restricted economy fares are at 93.6 per cent of July 2003, a more than three-year record, with the last high-water mark being February 2021’s 98.4 per cent; this was just before Rex launched its capital city services in March of 2021.
BITRE’s domestic airfare index monitors changes over time in the price of Australian air travel. The current system began in October 1992 and is presented as a price index in various fare classes, based on the top 70 routes.
BITRE defines the best discount as the cheapest fare available, excluding baggage surcharges, and covers Qantas, Virgin, and Jetstar.
Rex dropped its domestic jet operations after entering administration at the end of July, leaving only the Qantas Group-Virgin Australia duopoly to compete on domestic services.
This represents a dramatic turnaround from February this year, when Rex and Bonza were both flying domestically; this was the first time an Australian domestic route was operated by four different airline groups simultaneously, with Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin, Rex and Bonza all operating Melbourne-Gold Coast services.
Data from the Federal Government’s competition taskforce in January had showed that adding more competitors on a route can dramatically slash airfares.
Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, pointed to figures from the taskforce showing that airfares average 39.6 cents per kilometre on routes with only one carrier, 28.2 cents on routes with two carriers, and 19.2 cents with three.
“In other words, the price per kilometre is halved when three competitors fly a route compared with the situation when there is only a single monopoly airline. With four or five competitors, the price drops further still,” he said.
“Aviation competition has been fundamental to connecting Australian cities to one another, and connecting our country to the world. Still, many Australians suffer from a lack of competition.
“For example, for a resident of Darwin, it is often cheaper to fly from Darwin to Singapore than it is to fly from Darwin to Sydney – even though the international flight is longer than the domestic one.”
