Flight Centre releases 2018 Australia travel trends

To celebrate Australia Day, Flight Centre has released findings from its second annual Australia Travel Trends Report with the latest stats, trends and predictions around travel to Australia.

Alison Zacher, Retail MD at Flight Centre UK, said:

“Despite uncertainties about what 2017 held for the travel industry following Brexit and the weakening pound, it was a strong year for Australia and the outlook for 2018 is similarly positive.”

The report includes findings such as:

January is the cheapest and most popular month to travel

January is the most popular time to visit Australia, followed by September and August, all seeing year-on-year increase in passengers (22 per cent, 17 per cent and 21 per cent respectively). It’s also the cheapest time of the year to book with tickets, on average, 18 per cent cheaper than any other month of the year.

Edinburgh is the cheapest departure point, London most expensive
Edinburgh is still holds the cheapest UK departure point and is 25 per cent cheaper than Heathrow, which has taken over from Glasgow as the most expensive.

Manchester Airport sees biggest increase in flights to Australia

There have been significant year-on-year increases in departures from Manchester Airport (17 per cent), Edinburgh (11 per cent) and London (seven per cent).

Flying to Perth is seven per cent cheaper than Sydney

Perth is the most cost-effective airport for Brits to fly to with tickets costing on average £369 less than those for Sydney, the most expensive destination.

Favourite Hotspots

The most popular Australian destinations to fly to have remained consistent over the last five years with Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth making up around 90 per cent of all tickets sold.

As expected, Sydney takes the lead with 40 per cent of all tickets sold followed by Melbourne, which receives 22 per cent of all passengers entering the country.

Students love Australia
Last year, StudentUniverse saw a 366 per cent year-on-year increase in bookings to Australia. Plus, the company reported a 267 per cent year-on-year increase in repeat bookings to Oz in 2017. Travel in January or February for the cheapest student flights.

Doha & Abu Dhabi are the cheapest connections
According to StudentUniverse, the cheapest one-way route is when connecting via Doha, followed by stopovers in Abu Dhabi and Guangzhou. For return flights, Abu Dhabi is the cheapest connection, followed by Doha and Guangzhou.

Mobile devices becoming more popular for bookings
Mobile searches have always been popular (47 per cent of Australia searches in 2017 were via a mobile device, including the “Flights by StudentUniverse” app) but, in 2017, there was a 560 per cent year-on-year increase in bookings made via mobile.

Nearly half of bookings made four months in advance
Nearly half of young travellers (41 per cent) search for their trip to Australia more than 120 days prior to departure and nearly one in three (28 per cent) book this far in advance, followed by one in five (20 per cent) who book 31-60 days in advance.

Two week walkabout
Many young travellers are wise to the fact a short break is a great way to take in part of the country. The most popular length of stay (for return flights) is 15-21 days.

Australia Day Holiday offer – £999 deal
Customers can travel from London, Manchester or Edinburgh to Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane for £999 (and Sydney for £1099). The deal is available for trips during May, June and September 2018.