Australians are facing a chaotic and expensive end-of-year travel season, with record-high domestic fares and the threat of fresh industrial action by Qantas flight attendants coming to a crescendo over Christmas.
Following months of higher-than-average domestic air fares, travellers hoping to book the cheapest available return domestic air fares are facing prices not recorded since March 2004, according to air fare price indexes maintained by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE).