Domestic flights in Australia

Noxegon · 12-02-2023 10:02pm #1

Over the last ten days I've taken several domestic flights in Australia on a variety of airlines. It's amazing how civilised the experience is compared to what we're used to for short haul in Europe.

I haven't had to queue more than 90 seconds for security.
There are no restrictions on liquids in cabin baggage.
There's no problem finding space in an overhead bin because people (for the most part) don't bring full sized roller cases on board.
Boarding is straight onto the plane, rather than into a holding pen (or onto a staircase) ten minutes before the inbound aircraft lands.
Tea/coffee/water is included in your fare, and on Qantas you get a sandwich too.
There's no in-flight sales pitch over the PA - in fact, no PA announcements at all after the safety demo.
Free inflight wifi from gate to gate, and streaming movies to personal devices.

I could get used to this.

EchoIndia · 13-02-2023 12:41am

The LCCs in Europe have split off (and charge for) a lot of things that used to be included in the fare paid. This in turn has influenced passenger behaviour, especially in relation to baggage. Maybe in Australia the approach is more "traditional".

IngazZagni · 13-02-2023 2:36am

There is far more competition in the European market and if airlines don't keep costs low they might not be around for long. Flybe and Flyr are 2 to go bankrupt in the last month alone.

As a result air fares are in general far higher in Australia than in Europe as this article highlights.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/06/consumer-watchdog-puts-australian-airlines-on-notice-over-high-domestic-air-fares

Things like no liquid restrictions in hand luggage already exists in Shannon and Kerry and will spread to more European airports in the next year or 2.