Why are there so many airfare sales right now?
Tuesday, 16 January 2024
If your email inbox has been flooded with travel deals lately, you’re not alone.
New year flight sales could be a sign of things to come as cheaper flights are set to become more permanent.
Air New Zealand, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Air Tahiti Nui were just some of the carriers offering slashed prices for Kiwi travellers.
Meanwhile, Flight Centre has deals nearing pre-pandemic prices on return flights to Los Angeles, Fiji and Tokyo.
People were making the most of the sales, coming back from holiday and already booking the next one, according to travel agents.
Since Monday January 8, when many started back at work, Flight Centre NZ said bookings were up 25% compared to the prior week and up 20% compared to an average week in the prior month.
Visits to the Flight Centre NZ website increased by 35 % for the week 8-14 January compared to the week prior.
General manager Heidi Walker said New Year flight and holiday sales are a promising sign of prices returning to a certain degree of normalcy in 2024.
“With airline capacity returning closer to 100% and demand cooling off from the post-Covid frenzy we saw over the last couple of years, we will likely see travel return to more typical, seasonal trends.”
Walker said 2024 is gearing up to be an exciting year for travellers and the travel industry alike.
House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said it is already seeing prices come down for 2024.
“The pricing is out for the New Year sales for this year and we are definitely seeing a significant drop, particularly to those areas where there's a lot of competition, such as North America.”
Numerous airlines are now flying between New Zealand and the US, including Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines and Air New Zealand, with United launching the first ever direct route between the US and the South Island at the end of 2023, flying direct to San Francisco from Christchurch.
Thomas said the decrease in prices was due to a combination of fuel prices coming down from the highs of 2022-23 and increased capacity coming into New Zealand.
“[The International Air Transport Association] has come out and said they expect the prices this year across the world to be about 20% lower than 2023,” he said.
In December, the IATA said “2024 is expected to mark the end of the dramatic year-on-year increases that have been characteristic of the recovery in 2021-2023.”
Thomas said that as prices go down, more people will be able to afford to travel.
“We see 2024 being a record year in terms of sales here at House of Travel. The demand at the end of last year, and what we've already seen in the first two weeks of this year, indicates this is going to be another very, very big year.”
He said if people want to travel for the school holidays, they need to book sooner rather than later.
“We have a lot of people who come along and get disappointed that they can't get to some of those major destinations like Fiji and the Cook Islands on those dates because they leave it too late.”
Malaysia Airlines expected passengers travelling to Europe for events like the Olympic Games in Paris and the America’s Cup in Barcelona to increase demand for seats, so urged people to take advantage of its early booking deals.
Air Tahiti Nui wanted to make a rendezvous in Tahiti more accessible and released its lowest and best fares, starting from just $772 return from Auckland.
Those looking to explore India, Vietnam or Thailand could take advantage of Singapore Airlines’s sale on fares from Auckland and Christchurch.
And it is not just airlines offering sales, tour company G Adventures had up to 25% off its trips to some of this year’s most experience-packed destinations, including Colombia, the Galapagos, India, Italy and Thailand.