It’s not a cheap time to fly to Australia right now. But in the last few days, we’ve seen an incredible price surge even beyond what we’ve grown accustomed to.
One way flights from London to Sydney have been slung of late for as much as $43,000. Other reports suggested the priciest tickets were being advertised online for $38,000.
Either way, the wallet-trembling prices follow the federal government’s new inbound passenger cap, which has been introduced in response to Australia’s current battle against the Delta variant.
Our take? As far as we know, that $43,000 flight could well be the most expensive economy flight in history.
At the time of writing, prices seem to have settled a little (or perhaps the most expensive flights, on the likes of Etihad and Air Moldova, have now been booked out), with desirable flights for this week (i.e. ones without a huge layover) starting at $10,000 and maxing out at $27,207.
Australian Aviation reported yesterday that prices from other major capitals to Sydney are pricey too, writing: “New York regularly costs $20,000, Paris $30,000 and Tokyo $15,000.”
As Australia will be temporarily reducing its intake of international passengers by 50 per cent from July 14 from 6000 per week to just 3000, there are now fears carriers could price gouge – or stop passenger flights to Australia altogether.
There are around 34,000 Australians still stuck abroad.
Yet further proof we need to vaccinate everyone and open up as soon as safely possible.
