Backfilling during olympics
Hi all
I'm a regular from the webflyer (frequent flyer) boards who visited here as a result of a post about this site.
Seeing as there are a number of airline employees on this board I was hoping someone could help me with a query relevant to many Australians at the moment.
There have been many rumors of extensive backfilling during the olympics and that super cheap seats will be available to the US and Europe from Australia. People know my interest in travel and ask me all the time whether there is any truth to the rumors. The airlines and some travel agents have said they don't think think there will be cheap fares but then they would say that wouldn't they?
The hardest facts I've been able to ascertain are that our travel authorities expect an influx of an extra 110,000 visitors to Australia from August onwards over and above usual visitors. That's a lot of passengers.
Seems to me that there will be a lot of round trips to ferry these passengers to Australia and later back again and that could mean a lot of potentially empty planes flying the return leg. The airlines will have a big incentive to fill those seats by dropping prices.
Are we Australians going to see cheap tickets available soon or is it all an urban myth? Anybody have any idea how low it will go?
cheers Peter