Qantas, Jetstar & Virgin hike airfares as supplier costs inflate

The vertical stabilisers of a Qantas Boeing B737-838 plane, registration VH-VZQ, and a Virgin Australia Boeing B737-8FE plane, registration VH-VUZ, waiting at the northern end of the main runway of Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport in preparation for departure. The Qantas plane is heading to Adelaide as flight QF741 and the Virgin plane is heading to Adelaide as flight VA428. In the background is another Virgin B737-8FE plane. This image was taken from Nigel Love Bridge, Mascot on a sunny afternoon on 3 December 2023.

Qantas Group has raised airfares on the majority of its domestic routes by 2-3 per cent while Virgin Australia has signalled it will follow suit amid inflated supplier costs plaguing both companies.

Qantas told Travel Weekly that the airline and its budget subsidiary, Jetstar, have increased fares “to help cover cost increases passed on from a range of suppliers.”

“This increase reflects inflationary pressures being felt more broadly across the economy as well as some above-inflation rises in industry costs,” a Qantas spokesperson told Travel Weekly. This will be Qantas’ third price hike since October, but the carrier insists fares remain “well below the peaks seen in late 2022.”

A Virgin spokesperson confirmed that the carrier is working through a change to its airfares and will be communicating with trade partners ahead of updated fares going live next week.

Qantas’ airfares have increased 8 per cent since October, with the National Carrier increasing fares 3.5 per cent after the price of oil jumped and increased them again in February by 2.7 per cent to match Virgin’s corresponding price jump.

Qantas’ trans-Tasman airfares have also increased by between $10 and $20 and are up by $10 for Jetstar.

The fare increases come as Qantas and Virgin have both announced an array of sales over the past month.

Just yesterday, Virgin unveiled a seven-day end-of-summer sale featuring more than 900,000 fares, while Qantas last week launched sales on fares across the Pacific and discounted over one million seats on almost every route across Australia as part of a weeklong Australia Red Tail sale.

Featured Image: Qantas B737 and a Virgin Australia B737 at Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport – iStock/SCM Jeans

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