Cheap Flights to and Around Australia

Fly Down Under Cheaply with Budget Airlines and Online Deals

Nov 11, 2009

Due to its distance from most other countries, Australia has always been a pricey place to fly to; this guide points out the cheap budget options available.

Australia has its own range of budget airlines that service both local and international flights making budget travel to Australia finally possible. Thanks to increased competition from newer airlines Tiger Air and Jetstar, it’s now a lot cheaper to fly in and around the great land down under. For these reasons, there’s now no excuse not to go and visit some of Australia’s greatest sights.

Is Flying the Cheapest Way to Get Around Australia?

The short answer to the above question is ‘yes’. Many international travellers underestimate the sheer size of Australia. The country is actually bigger than mainland Europe and comparable to mainland USA, and for this reason flying is usually the most efficient way of getting around. The main cities of Australia are quite far spread: to drive from Sydney to Melbourne takes about 12 hours, from Sydney to Brisbane about 14 hours and from Melbourne to Adelaide about 9 hours. Rail is quite expensive as it’s not a popular form of travel with the locals, and thus flying is the cheapest way to move across the lengthy distances. Driving is a great way to see Australia, but only if travelling very short distances (like from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise) or to see the interior sights in the outback.

Australia's Newest Budget Airline Tiger Air

The newest low budget airline to hit the market in Australia is Tiger, the little brother of Singapore Air. Flying with Tiger Air is perhaps one of the cheapest ways to get to and around Australia as the airline is subsidised by the Singaporean government, thus meaning fares are competitive; sometimes passengers pay nothing except for the taxes. For flights within Australia, Tiger Air bases itself in Adelaide and Melbourne, so chances are all flights will have to go through one of those two cities to go anywhere else. Additionally, Tiger Air is a great way to fly cheaply into Australia from overseas; flights from certain major Asian ports such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore can be as low as $60AU. Currently, all international flights with Tiger go via Perth. Also, luggage limits are quite low at 15kg for checked luggage, with an extra cost for more weight.

Virgin Blue and V Australia

Virgin was Australia’s first big budget airline and have come on strongly in the past few years. They’re no longer the cheapest as they were in the beginning; they now sit in the middle ground between the mainstream airlines like QANTAS and the real low price airlines like Tiger. Yet Virgin offers a pretty decent quality service and a higher level of comfort than the other budget airlines so are worth a look. They now also have a new international division, V Australia. For international flights ‘V’ are pretty competitive compared with the major airlines and are the only Australian budget airline that currently flies to mainland USA and London (the others mostly fly within Asia only).

The Local Budget Airline Jetstar

This is QANTAS’s low budget arm and offers pretty cheap prices for internal flights within Australia. Jetstar also flies from Australia to a number of destinations within Asia, and to Honolulu in the USA. They aren’t quite as cheap as Tiger Air, but are more flexible in their movements as they’re not based in only two cities, but travel freely to most major ports in Australia. Jetstar can have some very good sales on, so it’s worthwhile keeping an eye on their website.

Save Time with Webjet

If clicking between websites for the three main budget airlines gets a little tiresome, then the comparison website Webjet is a great solution. The Australian-specific site is designed specifically to search out the cheapest airline prices for the selected time and date and also details current sales and specials. Webjet is also a great place to find discounted car rental and hotel deals in Australia.

Book Cheaper Holiday's with Flight Centre

Australian owned travel agent Flight Centre has a great reputation, especially for offering competitive prices for travel to Australia. Internationally, Flight Centre are known as Liberty Travel in the United States and Flight Shop in India, but are simply Flight Centre in other major locations.

The copyright of the article Cheap Flights to and Around Australia in Budget Transportation is owned by Ben Cluse. Permission to republish Cheap Flights to and Around Australia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.