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Qantas is raising international fares due to rising costs, including “significant increases in jet fuel prices”, resulting from the conflict in the Middle East.
In a statement, the Flying Kangaroo said that cost increases will vary by route. Qantas does not operate any of its own services to the Middle East, with its existing Europe flights continuing as scheduled, though Perth–London has added a fuel stop in Singapore.
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“We are continuing to closely monitor the impact the conflict in the Middle East is having on the volatility in jet fuel prices, which have risen by up to 150 per cent over the past fortnight. Despite hedging, this is driving up costs across the Group,” the airline said.
According to the national carrier, it has “seen strong bookings in recent weeks” for its Europe services over coming months, and it is working with passengers on partner airlines such as Emirates to facilitate refunds or rebookings.
“Flights on Qantas’ European routes, including Perth-London, Perth-Paris and services via Singapore, are more than 90 per cent full in March, which is approximately 15 percentage points higher than normal for this time of year,” Qantas said.
“Bookings for flights to and from Europe between April and June have also increased in recent weeks on these routes, as well as the Perth-Rome seasonal service which resumes in May.
“More customers have also been choosing to travel to Europe via the United States, other Asian cities and Johannesburg, connecting through Qantas’ partner airline network. We are exploring options to redeploy capacity into Europe on existing routes in the coming months.”
The move by Qantas comes as Air New Zealand suspends its 2026 earnings guidance due to fuel price volatility, while airlines such as Air India are introducing fuel surcharges.
Speaking to ABC Radio National on Tuesday, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Australia is “facing no issues” of fuel supply at the moment.
“We have, for example, with diesel, 32 days’ worth of supply in the stockpile. That’s in addition to all the diesel that’s in the service stations around Australia. That’s in the stockpile, we have 3 billion litres,” he said.
“Now, the other important point is that at this point, not one single shipload of diesel, petrol or jet fuel to Australia has been interrupted. They’ve all arrived on time, on schedule, as expected. And we expect that to be the case, at least for the immediate future.”
A one-way Qantas “Flex” seat from London Heathrow to Sydney within the next several days would cost upwards of around $3,400.
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