Soaring airfares: International prices up 7.2% in a month

Seasonal services such as Cathay Pacific's service to Christchurch ended after summer, meaning less competition and higher prices.

Kiwi overseas travellers face volatile prices, with international airfares up 7.2 per cent last month compared to March.

International fares had been falling as more competition entered the market over the summer but spiked last month, according to Stats NZ figures.

April is when peak summer capacity comes off New Zealand routes as airlines deploy planes to the northern hemisphere.

But the annual trend is good for travellers. During the past 12 months, international prices have fallen 20.5 per cent.

And while domestic fares spiked earlier this year, they are down 5.1 per cent between March and April and down 6.9 per cent over a year.

Stats NZ consumer prices manager James Mitchell said that, on the flip side of increasing international fares, prices for accommodation were cheaper.

Domestic accommodation was down 9.4 per cent between March and April and international accommodation was down 4.9 per cent.

Prices for both air transport and accommodation have sky-rocketed from pre-pandemic lows of 2019, a period dubbed “the golden age of travel”.

International air transport prices were 47.7 per cent more expensive than five years ago (April 2019), while prices for overseas accommodation were now 30.8 per cent more expensive over the same period of time, the Selected Price Index said.

Airfares make up 2.7 per cent of the Consumer Price Index and ASB economists expect further falls in airfares this year as the ‘‘Covid-19 premium’' unwinds.

Accommodation prices make up 2.9 per cent of CPI.

‘‘We had expected a fall in the international component to the degree that Taylor Swift’s Q1 tour in Australia boosted accommodation prices,’' the ASB said.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.