The price of international airfares decreased almost 13 per cent in the second half of 2023, fresh data from Flight Centre has revealed.
The Flight Centre Corporate analysis showed economy passengers across all airlines saved an average of $280 per ticket between July and December last year, compared with 2022.
First-class and business class tickets also dropped, by about eight per cent each – bringing savings of up to $1280.
Global chief operating officer for Flight Centre Corporate Melissa Elf said the results were a welcome relief for travellers and the industry at large.
“We’ve spent some time now assuring our corporate travellers that as airlines continue to recover, as capacity and competition comes back to the network, our travellers would start to see the cost of travel drop,” Elf said.
“We’re starting to see the signs of exactly that – and although we’ve still got some way to go yet in terms of getting back to full capacity, particularly internationally, there’s no doubt we’re beginning to feel the positive effects.”
Flights into Hong Kong from Australia recorded the highest rates of relief, dropping almost 36 per cent in price for economy tickets and almost 24 per cent for business class.
Flight Centre Corporate said the decline comes as a result of Hong Kong removing quarantine requirements for international entrants in September 2022.
Flights to New Zealand were down over 23.5 per cent and passengers travelling to Singapore averaged a 15.65 per cent saving.
The United States was another destination to observe a sizeable price dip, plunging 16 per cent across economy airfares, 14.8 per cent for first class and over 11 per cent for business class.
There was a direct correlation between regions that were adding and welcoming airline capacity and the cost of travel decreasing, Elf said.
“Our data shows that Southeast Asia is back to 107 per cent capacity on pre-2019 levels, and it’s clear that more flights and more competition has led to the significant drop in airfares that we’re seeing into countries like Hong Kong and Singapore,” she said.
“There’s more room for prices to drop to destinations like the Middle East, New Zealand, and North America, for example, which are at pre-2019 capacity levels of 81 per cent, 86 per cent and 91 per cent respectively.”
(9 NEWS)
