Qantas sizes up special deals

Sky-high fares reduced

COMPETITION appears to be heating up in the international travel space as Qantas joins Virgin Australia in an airfare sale.

After months of extreme prices for overseas travel, Qantas is putting 170,000 seats on sale across all cabins on many of its international routes.

In economy, there are sale fares on offer of $759 return for Melbourne-Singapore and Brisbane-Singapore, $1299 for Sydney-Los Angeles, $949 return for Sydney-Seoul, and $1699 for Sydney-Santiago and Melbourne-London.

Business-class seats start from $4999 for Sydney-Bengaluru return, and $7299 for Sydney-Los Angeles and back – a significant discount on 2022 prices, which hovered about $20,000. Premium economy fares on sale include $3999 for Melbourne-LA return.

The Qantas sale began at 12.01am on Thursday and runs until February 7, unless sold out beforehand.

Virgin Australia also this week launched a major airfare sale on domestic and international routes.

Half a million seats were discounted, with economy “lite” fares from $615 return for Sydney-Bali, Melbourne-Vanuatu from $539 and BrisbaneSamoa for $549.

The cheaper fares are designed to stimulate travel outside of traditional holiday periods as pent-up demand from the pandemic begins to dwindle.

The Qantas international fare sale coincided with the announcement of a new route from Melbourne to Jakarta, starting on April 16.

Qantas domestic and international chief executive Andrew David said the flights were expected to be popular due to Victoria’s large Indonesian expat community.

“Indonesia is a rapidly growing economy and home to more than 270 million people,” Mr David said. “As one of Australia’s closest neighbours, these new flights will also help support the growing trade and investment links between our two countries.”

A widebody A330 will operate the services three times a week, in addition to Qantas’ flights from Sydney to Jakarta, increasing seats into Indonesia by 6600 a month.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Lorie Argus said it was exciting to see Qantas expanding its international footprint out of Victoria.

“This new route follows the successful launch of flights from Melbourne to Delhi and Melbourne to Dallas, and the impending return of flights to Melbourne-Tokyo (Haneda) and Hong Kong,” Ms Argus said.

“We expect the route will prove popular with business travellers, students and people travelling to see family and friends as well as the growing number of Victorian tourists looking to explore more of Indonesia than the traditional holiday hotspots.”

To mark the start of the new route, fares of $899 are on offer for Melbourne-Jakarta return until February 7 unless sold out earlier.