In what might come as little surprise to any Australians who have recently purchased or intend to purchase domestic flights the cost of airfares has reached a 15 year high according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which has sighted the trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future as airlines keep capacity tight and are reluctant to expand services among rising jet fuel prices and crippling worker shortages. Covid uncertainty is still also set to be playing its part in hindering more affordable air travel that was seen prior to the pandemic.
In releasing the latest ACCC quarterly Airline Competition in Australia report Commissioner Anna Brakey noted how the average revenue per passenger, an indication of average airfares across all fare types, was 27 per cent higher in October 2022 than it was in October 2019.
In addressing the concerns of skyrocketing airfare prices Anna Brakey put the airlines on notice saying that “We accept that the airlines are still experiencing some pandemic-related resource challenges, but the ACCC will be monitoring them closely to ensure they return capacity to the market in a timely manner to start easing pressure on airfares.”
“We would be concerned if airlines withheld capacity to keep airfares high”, Ms Brakey said.
In more encouraging news for Aussie travelers the report also investigated the airlines on-time performance and cancellation rates and found significant improvements from the horror issues faced earlier in the year which saw a significant spike in cancellation and flight delays amongst the airlines. The report found that from July to October of 2022 the industry average cancellation rate dropped from a staggering 6.4% to 2.9% whilst delayed arrivals dropped from a whopping 45% to a still far from perfect 30.7%. Whilst these trends are good news for travelers more progress still has to made to return to the pre pandemic long term industry average of 2.1% for cancelled flights and 18.2% for delayed arrivals.
