Flights From Sydney To Melbourne Could Cost $19 When Domestic Travel Resumes

Everyone's plans, whether big or small, have been put on hold until the coronavirus pandemic weakens across Australia.

Naturally, loads of people are now itching to travel beyond the confines of their suburb to get a bit of breathing space.

Well, it looks like that could be extremely cheap when the social distancing rules are rolled back and people are allowed to travel interstate.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has hinted that flights from Sydney to Melbourne could be less than a ticket to see a movie.

Universal Pictures

Mr Joyce said with Virgin Australia in voluntary administration, Qantas and Jetstar will be poised to take Australians around the country when rules are relaxed.

"Airlines will be keen to stimulate travel demand to get their people and aircraft back to work and restart their cashflow pipelines, repairing the damage done by the devastating and sudden drop in revenue," he said in an open letter to travellers, staff and other stakeholders.

"That's good news for consumers because it means plenty of good deals."

Mr Joyce added that popular routes could have their prices slashed to attract people to travel domestically.

"On Melbourne-Sydney you could see Jetstar have $39 airfares, you could see $19 airfares and we'll still cover our cash costs on those flights," Joyce stated.

Don't get on the group chat just yet though.

PA

We're not expected to have domestic flights running for at least another two months.

A statement on the Jetstar website states: "With passenger demand still at very low levels as a result of travel restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19.

"Jetstar will be carrying out domestic and Trans-Tasman flight cancellations beyond the end-May through to the end of June 2020."

The airline says international travel won't open up until at least July 2021, so you can forget the idea of sipping cocktails in Bali or surfing through the Philippines any time soon. But at least we can get excited about seeing all the sights and sounds of Australia.

The Qantas CEO also highlighted the airline was shelving Project Sunrise, a non-stop flight from Australia to New York and London.

Mr Joyce said it's not the right moment to launch a massive initiative like that and they'll see whether they can revive it once the pandemic settles down.

Topics: News, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie