Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
At 229 days out only those who *must* fly on that day will be booking now. The lower cost fare buckets are zeroed out to maximize the $$ QF will get
MEL to DPO Devonport TAS is not a popular destination. (Can take a ferry with your car, subsidized by federal govt as a "highway")
Short flights have a high cost per km
- Step 1: Advertising, selling tickets, check in, loading pax & bags, airport charges, fuel up, aircraft takeoff and climb to cruise altitude (high power). [very high cost]
- Step 2: Cruise at medium ~ low power, autopilot on, FA's down the back playing on phones ~ reading magazines. [a little harsh] [low cost]
- Step 3: Landing: airport charges, unloading pax & bags, park aircraft [high cost]
A lot of aircraft maintenance is per cycle (take off - landing). [high cost]. A lesser amount is per flying hour. [medium cost]
I will need to fly - returning on EK406 at 05:30 after 8 weeks in Europe. When I was booking EK flights, these were at $359. Then they dropped to $329 and now they are crawling up again. Interestingly 2-7 June sells for $159, then it goes up until 21 June which again sells for $159. Later on flights to DPO sell for about $195. I am not aware of anything major happening in Tassie and importantly not in Devonport. Not even school holidays...
MEL-LST on 19 June was $109 not so long ago, now $178. MEL-HBA is $187. So that would not suggest any major happenings in Tassie either. So, it's rather puzzling why those two weeks are up.
And no, there was no way to book those together with EK tickets - it was done on-line using "Dubai Experience" to get 10% off J class fares (well worth of it). Unfortunately, was told it does not allow for any codeshare or mixed class, and DPO is whY only 😭