Qantas says it will likely review its international rates every two weeks, and they are likely to rise further, due to continued volatility around fuel prices.
Speaking at the Destination Australia 2026 tourism conference on Thursday, Qantas International chief executive Cam Wallace said the current conflict with Iran has presented an “incredibly volatile and fast-moving” situation that the airline is monitoring closely.
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Flying Kangaroo has already increased international ticket prices in response to rising fuel costs, while Air New Zealand will cut more than 1,000 flights in the coming months.
“One thing we’ve seen all airlines, and all consumers, is that the cost of fuel has increased materially, and what that means for us is obviously our costs have increased materially, so consumers will see higher prices,” Wallace said.
“We just raised prices, as I think most airlines have done in the short term, but we haven’t seen any reduction. And more importantly, fuel prices actually continue to rise.”
Wallace pointed to Qantas’ most recent half-year results, which showed the group’s international revenue declined slightly year-on-year in the first half of FY25.
“That’s because clearly more capacity came into the market because there was a long queue after the pandemic,” he said.
“In the last three weeks, there’s kind of a unique volatility, so trying to pick where airfares are going to go in the next three months is going to be really challenging because our costs have gone up like I’ve never seen in 30 years in airlines.
“So we’re going to have to continue to look at those rates every two weeks, but what I would say is that the market in Australia is very attractive, and the more carriers that come to Australia, the more capacity that comes into the market, which will put more downward pressure on rates.”
The airline has also seen an increase in international demand in the short term, Wallace said, with Qantas looking to redeploy more fleet towards Europe services in the coming months.
Bookings on routes including Perth-London, Perth-Paris and services via Singapore are more than 90 per cent full in March, 15 per cent higher than normal load factors for this time of year.
“We’re just keeping an eye on our markets and making sure we can deploy as much capacity as practically possible in the short term to get as many people where they want to go, and that includes looking at ways to find more capacity to get into Europe,” Wallace said.
The comments come as Transport Minister Catherine King seeks to reassure Australians that near-term jet fuel supplies are secure and that Qantas and Virgin Australia are “well positioned” to handle immediate disruptions.
