When a certain global *issue* stopped Aussies travelling overseas, we responded by jumping on planes the moment we could – with 7.27 million Aussies taking an overseas holiday in 2022. Now, despite the cost of living crisis, international travel is still a big priority for the Sydneysiders who are lucky enough to afford it. In fact, recent research from Skyscanner found that 75 per cent of Australians plan to travel more or the same in 2024, and 35 per cent will spend more on trips this year.
According to the Australian Government's Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE ), international services carried 3.803 million passengers out of Australia in January 2024 – a 28.4 per cent increase from January 2023. And as Sydney’s appetite for overseas travel grows, so too does our list of destinations – according to Skyscanner, interest from Aussies in travel to the once under-the-radar Balkan destination of Albania was up by 260 per cent in June 2023 (compared with 2019 search rates), and December 2023 saw 89,500 Aussies visit Japan, up 23 per cent compared with the same month in 2022. In their 2024 Travel Trend Report, Skyscanner listed Japan as the number one destination for Aussie travellers this year. If our Instagram feeds are anything to go by, we're inclined to agree.
As we become more interested in different destinations, airlines are responding accordingly – you can now fly several new routes from Sydney Airport, and more new routes are yet to come later in the year (including a flight to Turkey, set to launch in late 2024).
Last week, Jetstar relaunched its Sydney to Osaka flight route after a 15-year break, with three return services set to run to the Japanese city every week. The Sydney to Osaka route is the third direct service that Jetstar has launched from Australia to Japan in a six-month period. They also launched direct services from Sydney to Busselton in WA (near Margaret River) last week.
Japan isn’t the only international destination to become more easily accessible to Sydneysiders in recent weeks. This Tuesday (April 2), Qantas launched a twice-weekly service from Sydney to Papua New Guinea – its first passenger flights between these cities in more than 50 years.
Data from Webjet over the Easter period reported a 43 per cent rise in flight bookings this year compared to 2023, and while Australia’s favourite destinations are still our neighbours, Sydneysiders travel habits are starting to change.
For the Easter period, Bali came out on top as the favourite overseas destination for Aussies to hit (taking 16.3 per cent of flights), with three New Zealand airports coming in next. This shift is reflective of Bali’s new position as Australia’s most popular overseas destination – it overtook NZ as our favourite place to fly to for the first time ever in 2023, and Japan came in as the fifth most visited destination (in 2022, it didn’t even make the top 10).
Keen to get on the plane? The good news is, the cost of international flights is finally starting to fall
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