Australian air travel - airfares and flights in and around Australia
While airfares in Australia aren't quite as competitive as Europe, they are still reasonably cheap considering the distances and fuel costs involved. Australia has four main airlines which service almost all capital cities and major regional towns, they are:
- Qantas - Australia's oldest airline, offers services to most cities with a population of more than 10,000, either directly or via smaller affiliated regional networks. Qantas has in impeccable safety record, but has copped criticism for dropping services to certain areas and palming them off to its budget airline, JetStar (see below).
- JetStar - JetStar started operating in Australia in 2004. The company is owned by Qantas and generally offers cheaper rates than its parent. Because the airfares are cheaper, the service isn't as good and flights can be delay prone. First in line gets the best seats, if you arrive at the airport late you end up with no view and no legroom - but that's not that hard to swallow.
- Virgin Blue - Part of the Virgin brand, although Richard Branson only owns a small percentage of it. The airline is directly competitive with JetStar on price, but tends to offer better service. The cabin crew have to tell a minimum number of jokes per flight and the airline has faced legal action recently over their employment practices, which seem to favour younger, prettier hostesses. Whether or not those are good points depends entirely on your point of view.
- Regional Express - Services most major regional towns in South eastern Australia.
Comparing prices between Qantas, Virgin and JetStar
A flight between Sydney and Melbourne will cost you anywhere between about $70 and $412, which is an astonishing difference considering it's only an hours flight. The following websites allow you to compare flights between the three major carriers:
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