Transport > Australia > Air travel
Air travel in Australia
Australia has four major airlines plus a number of smaller regional carriers.
The main airlines are the long-established Qantas and budget airlines JetStar, Tiger Airways and Virgin Blue. Qantas has the most extensive flight network followed by Virgin Blue and Jetstar. Tiger Airways is the new kid on the block having started service in November 2007. All four airlines have relatively young fleets.
Generally JetStar (tel 13 15 38; website www.jetstar.com.au) and Tiger (tel (03) 9335 3033; website www.tigerairways.com.au) offer the cheapest fares. Virgin Blue (tel 13 67 89; website www.virginblue.com.au) started out as a low cost airline but have moved more upmarket, although their fares are still competitive. Qantas (tel 13 13 13; website www.qantas.com.au) is more expensive but they have good value red e-deals advertised on their website.
Regional Express, also known as Rex Airlines (tel 13 17 13; website www.rex.com.au) is Australia’s main regional airline. Rex flies to around 35 regional destinations in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The main cities that Rex flies to are Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney; the most northern destination on the Rex network is Maryborough (near Hervey Bay) and they also fly to outback towns like Broken Hill, Olympic Dam and Coober Pedy. Rex has introduced two excellent value backpacker travel passes that allow either one month unlimited standby travel for $499 or two months for $949. These passes are only available to international travellers with a HI/YHA, ISIC, IYTC or VIP card and you cannot use this pass to accrue frequent flyer points. Despite the limited reach of the Rex network, this is probably Australia’s best value travel pass.
Other regional airlines include Skywest (tel 1300 66 00 88; website www.skywest.com.au) and Airnorth (tel 1800 627 474; website www.airnorth.com.au). These two airlines operate flights to smaller cities (mostly in Western Australia and the Northern Territory). They tend to be a bit more expensive than the larger airlines but it is still worth checking their fares as occasionally you can get a good deal.
Frequent flyer points
Qantas is part of the One World network along with American Airlines and British Airways. If you’re not already a member of a OneWorld airline’s frequent flyer programme you can join American Airlines’ programme for free and earn points with Qantas flights, rather than paying to join the Qantas frequent flyer programme. You can sign up for the American Airlines frequent flyer programme on their website (www.aa.com).
