Flight deals boost trips overseas

Demand for international travel is soaring as Australian flyers take advantage of a strong Australian dollar and lower flight prices, with research showing average international airfares sold in Australia are more than 10 per cent cheaper than two years ago...

International fares that fell during the economic downturn, particularly to the US, have remained significantly discounted this year, fuelling sales.

Flight Centre spokesman Haydn Long said internal figures showed overseas flights were an average of 10 to 15 per cent cheaper than two years ago. Flights to the US are about 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than the 2008 average, he said, partly due to increased competition from V Australia and Delta Air Lines.

Record global ticket sales helped Flight Centre more than triple its net profit in the last financial year, the company announced yesterday. ''The cheap fares really stimulated demand,'' Mr Long said.

International fares first started to fall in late 2008, he said, hitting their nadir in April last year. Mr Long said while prices had increased since then, most remained below previous levels.

Figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics show international scheduled passenger traffic in May 2010 was 1,887,000 compared with 1,765,000 a year earlier. Month-on-month increases have reached more than 9 per cent between September 2009 and March 2010. According to the Tourism and Transport Forum, the gap between Australians travelling overseas and international visitors to Australia has passed 1 million in a year for the first time.

Travel writer Clive Dorman said overseas travel was ''going gangbusters'', with demand fuelled in part by the strong Australian dollar.

''Anecdotally, it is also to do with the fact that people are really bored with Australia,'' he said. ''It is so cheap to travel overseas now that people are not interested in travelling around Australia any more and the domestic industry is relying more than ever on foreign tourists coming in.''

Within Australia, the greatest percentage increase in air traffic compared to June 2009 was on the Cairns-Melbourne route, up 25.4 per cent. About 4.24 million passengers flew domestically in June 2010, a 9.6 per cent rise.

Source: www.theage.com.au