Reports that Qantas and Virgin are charging Fremantle and Brisbane fans up to $6,000 for return flights to Melbourne this AFL Grand Final weekend, with some fares quadrupling in the hours after the preliminary finals, are the latest proof that Australia’s aviation market is broken, the Greens say.
Fremantle and Brisbane fans have been told they could fly to Europe and back for the same price as a trip to the MCG.
As stated by Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Greens MP for Ryan & spokesperson for Transport & Lions fan:
“The airline duopoly are un-Australian scam artists.
“These companies will sign sponsorship deals to try and convince you that they love footy. They don’t. They love money. Your money. The more of it the better.
“This is the kind of un-sportsmanlike behaviour we see everyday from big companies, big companies that the public used to own and run for the public good, not profit.
“Is it any wonder they get away with this appalling conduct when the responsible Minister, Catherine King, was just gifted a lifetime Chairman’s Lounge membership.
“Ordinary fans who’ve followed their team all season are being slugged thousands of dollars just to watch a grand final, because two airlines control almost the entire domestic market and know Australians have no choices.
“The former Chair of the ACCC says this is price gouging, and he’s right. The fact it’s not illegal to raise prices based on algorithms, says everything about how far successive governments have let privatisation run unchecked. These algorithms can include the post-code where you’re searching from and whether data on file suggests you’re a football fan – it’s a scam.
“Qantas and Virgin can point to adding extra flights all they like, but scarcity pricing on essential travel during a cost-of-living crisis isn’t ‘supply and demand’ – it’s a duopoly extracting maximum profit because it can.
“The Greens will keep pushing to end the Qantas-Virgin duopoly’s stranglehold on Australian skies, so footy fans and everyone else who has no real choice but to fly across this massive continent aren’t treated as a captive market to be squeezed dry.”
