New Breed Of Fliers Buy Up In Sale Of Century
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday June 28, 1991
A two-day drive to Rockhampton was swapped for a holiday in Perth; what would have been a 14-hour train trip to Brisbane was made in a fraction of the time at little extra cost; and Christmas came early for a student who snared a half-price air ticket home to Perth.
These were the journeys yesterday of the new fliers - the impulse travellers; people for whom air travel or flights to holiday locations were too costly until the latest round of price-cutting by Australia's domestic airlines.
Some of them were not even planning a flight interstate until the price-cutting war began in earnest last week. These are people like Leo and Clare Cook, of Kempsey. Until the price war began, they had been planning a long drive to Rockhampton along the dangerous Pacific Highway to see their daughter.
First it was the airfare that grabbed their attention - as low as $185 one-way. They followed this news up with an inquiry about the cost of package holidays.
The price of the holiday package - including return airfare and seven nights' accommodation at a four-star hotel in Perth - was just too good to refuse at $662 each.
So they changed their minds, they say, very quickly.
Yesterday, they eagerly joined Compass Airlines's other Perth-bound passengers, as well as those who were flying to Melbourne on a one-way fare as low as $88.
"We can see our daughter any time," said Mrs Cook. "We're going to take advantage of these low fares before all the airlines go broke. We booked straight away, I tell you."
Mr Cook said: "It beats driving, that's for sure."
Late last week, Brett Woodgush, 24, was expecting to see his parents in his home town of Perth at the end of the year - until they heard about the latest low fares. He got a ticket for $430 return.
The full rate is more than $850.
Twice, while still studying in Perth, Mr Woodgush, even when flying on a stand-by ticket, has had to pay almost the cost of a full fare to visit his girlfriend in Sydney.
It worked out to be cheaper by flying from Perth to Sydney via Bali, he said.
Mrs Bev Salter, of Gympie, north of Brisbane, heard about the low fares to Brisbane from Sydney (as low as $90 one-way) and immediately booked tickets for her grandchildren - all four of them.
"They would never be able to come if this wasn't the case," Mrs Salter said.
She was visiting them in Sydney this week because she was able to get a cut-price Compass Airlines ticket of $210 Sydney-Brisbane return.
Normally she would take the train, pay $16 less and the trip would take 12 hours longer.
"Compass has really set the cat among the pigeons with these low fares,"she said.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald
