Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin are putting on thousands of extra seats and dozens more flights ahead of the AFL finals.
The airlines were gearing up for a bumper footy finals series, with Qantas and Jetstar adding more than 30 flights and almost 8,000 seats between Perth and Melbourne to get fans to and from the games.
Meanwhile, Virgin Australia was offering more than 60,000 seats across key routes connecting Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth for this weekend’s AFL qualifying finals. Virgin also added an extra flight between Sydney and Brisbane to support Brisbane Lions’ fans travelling home after the match.
Qantas and Jetstar had started adding extra capacity in May – the earliest they had started preparing for any finals series – after seeing an unprecedented surge in demand from Western Australian fans.
The airline group said it was prepared to add even more flights once the teams and fixtures for each finals match were locked in.
“Virgin Australia will continue to monitor demand throughout the AFL Finals Series and add more flights where possible to help keep fares affordable for fans,” a spokesperson said.
Qantas Domestic CEO Markus Svensson said “footy fever” had arrived earlier than the airline had seen in previous years.
“Already we’ve seen thousands of fans book travel before their team has even made the final and we’ve added thousands of additional seats to our network,” he said.
The airline had a number of additional aircraft and crews on standby, with the move coming as school holidays start in mid-September.
Fans have been urged to book early where possible to secure the best fares.
The scramble for seats comes after Qantas and Jetstar added 27 extra flights last year to help Brisbane-based fans travel to Melbourne for the AFL grand final following the preliminary finals.
The group was also preparing for a huge NRL final series, adding more than 1,000 extra seats across the Tasman to help New Zealand fans travel to Sydney for the NRL grand final in October.
Mr Svensson said the airline would continue monitoring demand throughout the finals series.
“We have a number of additional aircraft and crews on standby giving us flexibility to add even more flights once each final game is locked in to help fans get behind their team,” he said.
“That starts with the game tonight, with more capacity for the grand final as teams advance to the preliminary final.”
Fremantle and Hawthorn kick off the finals series this Thursday night as the two top-eight sides clash at Optus Stadium.
Originally published as Qantas and Jetstar add 8,000 extra seats for AFL finals fans