800,000 half-price flights: How to get one
That's around 46,000 tickets on sale every week to over a dozen regions nation-wide.
The $1.2 billion government support package is about to give the Australian tourism industry a much-needed boost.
Running from April to July, it is hoped that this is the push Australians need to get booking again.
Through the incentive, Qantas and Virgin Australia are expected to slash fares to major destinations within their networks.
Qantas estimates around 550,000 discounted fares will be made available to Australians across both Qantas and Jetstar networks.
Alan Joyce, Qantas Group CEO said, "This support is fantastic news for aviation and for the thousands of businesses, big and small, that rely on the tourism industry."
So how does it work?
It's all quite simple actually and doesn't require you to do anything outside of your normal booking routine. Here's the low-down.
From 1 April 2021, travellers can begin booking these return sale seats through regular airline websites.
Travel dates for these sale tickets begin from 1 May with Qantas and Jetstar. Virgin Australia and Rex are yet to release their details.
Destinations include:
- Cairns, QLD
- The Whitsundays, QLD
- The Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Gold Coast, QLD
- Townsville, QLD
- Merimbula, NSW
- Avalon, VIC
- Launceston, TAS
- Hobart, TAS
- Devonport, TAS
- Burnie, TAS
- Adelaide, SA
- Kangaroo Island, SA
- Alice Springs, NT
- Darwin, NT
- Lasseter, NT
- Broome, WA
Negotiations are also open to expanding this destination list as long as it falls within the 800,000 fare cap.
Since its announcement, Hobart, Townsville, Darwin and Adelaide have been added to the list.
The incentive is also set to go towards keeping small businesses, international aviation workers and ground crew in work. This area of the plan is expected to run between 29 March and 30 September 2021.
Mr Joyce also commented, saying, "This stimulus package will bring our domestic crews back to work faster and help them ramp up their hours closer to pre-crisis levels."
Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said, "This isn't just good news for us, this is good news for all Australians. The economic impact this will have cannot be underestimated. This is a once in a generation event that is going to give the entire tourism industry supply chain a significant boost, which it desperately needs."
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