Further pressure is being placed on the family holiday as Qantas announced today that it would increase its international and domestic fares for tickets issued in Australia on or after 4 June.
The Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon, said Qantas would increase international fares by approximately 4 per cent and domestic fares by approximately 3 per cent. This followed increases of approximately 3 per cent for international fares and 3.5 per cent for domestic fares earlier this month.
He said the increases were unavoidable given the continuing high cost of oil.
“Oil and jet fuel prices continue to break records, with West Texas Intermediate spot crude oil passing US$134 a barrel overnight and Singapore Jet Fuel today trading at nearly US$166 a barrel,” Mr Dixon said.
“Despite our hedging activities, fare increases, surcharges, and strong focus on managing costs across our operations, we will not cover these higher fuel costs, which at current prices will add more than A$2 billion to our fuel bill in 2008/09.
“We are continuing to target further efficiency improvements which now include a review our network and schedules of Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar.”
For families that were planning on taking a family holiday in the next 12 months it might be worth looking to booking now, Airfares are set to increase by up to 4%. Keep your eye out for other airlines that will follow the lead of Qantas.
