Holiday makers looking to find airfare deals this festive season may be disappointed, with a number of factors keeping prices high.
University of the Sunshine Coast tourism academic Dr Aaron Tham said low competition, a shortage of aerospace engineers and increasing weather-related flight disruption were among the issues contributing to an expensive flying season.
Dr Tham said the closure of Australia’s two smaller airlines Bonza and Rex has had an impact on the overall competition in Australia.
“But it’s also interesting to see the announcement of the new Koala Airlines who say they’re aware of the industry challenges and are working to avoid the pitfalls that have affected others.
“Considering the white paper released by the Federal Government’s new watchdog, I don’t think Australia will be any position to lower prices until we have more competition coming in.”
He said airlines globally were clamouring to employ qualified aerospace engineers.
“It takes a long time to get new people up to speed, so the fastest way to recruit is to take someone who is already trained from a competing airline.
“This makes it easier for bigger airlines with bigger benefits to hire.”
Dr Tham said airlines were also still juggling with patchy demand, since the pandemic.
“Australia is still only at about two thirds of where we were at pre-COVID (and) has a unique dynamic in that we’re a very large country with a small travelling population.
“So demand must be weighed with airport plane capacities and other cost pressures.”
He said cost of operations keeps rising including petrol and air conditioning in airports.
“It’s costing billions more to keep the airports running and that’s something people don’t always think about.”
Dr Tahm said climate change was also impacting prices.
“There’s a new level of uncertainty around disrupted flights that is adding to the cost.
“People are aware of their consumer rights and wanting to ensure flexibility if their flight is disrupted.
“And while we might immediately think of storms, we don’t always consider the domino effects of other factors such as smoke cover from bushfires, electrical blackouts affecting airports.”
