The Australian domestic air fares have declined from historic highs of 2022-end, but still remain above the pre-pandemic levels as per the latest figures released by Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).
According to the quarterly report released by the commission, the Australian domestic airfares hit a 15-year-high in December 2022. Following that record peak, the price of discount fares only decreased by one-third in in January 2023.
“While it’s positive to see airfares fall from record highs in 2022, passengers are still generally paying more to fly today than they were before the pandemic,” said ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey. “Airfares typically come down after the Christmas travel peak due to a seasonal decrease in demand, however some of this reduction is also explained by the airlines increasing their seat capacity.”
The average revenue per passenger, which represents an average price across all fare types, declined by 13% in real terms between the high of December 2022 and January 2023.
Despite this drop, the average revenue per passenger actually remained 13% higher than 2019 levels.
The Australian airline industry recorded the seat capacity of 5.9 million in January 2023, reflecting the highest availability level in more than six months as per ACCC report.
In terms of relative airline performance, Qantas flew at 102% of its pre-pandemic capacity, Virgin at 96% and Jetstar at 84%. Despite the airlines increase capacity, this did not however translate into more passengers flying. In January, 4.4 million passengers flew within Australia, which is 89% of pre-pandemic levels.
The industry load factor fell from 83% in October 2022 to 75% in January 2023 due to seasonal reduction in demand coupled with higher capacity leading to more empty seats.
Jetstar transported 26.9% of all domestic passengers in January 2023, an increase of nearly four percentage points from the last quarter while Qantas market share fell to 34.8% and Virgin Australia had a market share of 33.4%. Rex flew 4.9% of all domestic passengers.