Arabic version: رحلات النهائي الكبير إلى ملبورن تصل إلى 6,000 دولار
According to ABC News, return airfares to Melbourne have reached as much as $6,000 before Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, as Fremantle Dockers and Brisbane Lions supporters seek seats for the match.
Prices rose after Fremantle and Brisbane won their preliminary finals. Fremantle fan John Cooke said he knew supporters paying $1,900 for a one-way flight from Perth. Cooke, who booked his own flights months earlier, said limited airline competition meant carriers knew services would be full, describing the increase as “profiteering”.
Brisbane Lions supporter Wendy Elson said fares climbed sharply once the grand final combination was known. Elson has booked a one-way flight to Melbourne but had not secured a ticket home. She said she and her son might need to hire a car and drive back, or hitch a ride, if they could not find a suitable return journey.
Griffith University aviation industry expert Justin Wastnage said airlines use increasingly sophisticated dynamic-pricing systems to maximise revenue from limited seats. He said major events and geographical information could be factored into booking systems, and described some less understood elements of dynamic pricing as “dark arts”.
Airlines have added capacity in response. Qantas added 13 Perth-to-Melbourne flights after Fremantle’s preliminary-final victory, with advertised one-way fares from $766. Qantas and Jetstar added seven Brisbane-Melbourne services, while Virgin added 4,000 seats between Perth and Melbourne and 1,000 from Brisbane. Flight Centre said bookings to Melbourne from Brisbane and Perth were already 126 per cent higher than at the same time last year.
