Fremantle fans looking ahead to grand final week will be in for a rude shock when they check the price of flights from Perth to Melbourne.
The Dockers are flying high at the top of the AFL ladder with 11 straight wins to surge into outright premiership favouritism.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Flights from Perth to Melbourne for grand final surge in price
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The situation has many long-suffering fans dreaming of a historic first premiership in club history. The Dockers have previously made one grand final, falling short against Hawthorn in 2013.
Perth-based supporters don’t want to miss out on being at the MCG on the final Saturday in September. So much so, that they are already snapping up flights in grand final week, resulting in prices surging.
7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary noted that fares for a one-way flight on the three days prior to the grand final are already going for over $700, with some prices already exceeding four figures.
In comparison, prices for the same flight the week prior are around the $300 mark.
“We’re always on a lookout to see what happens with grand final flight time,” he said on The Agenda Setters.
“The Dockers are flying at the moment, but have a look at some of the flight prices you can get for the grand final week. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you won’t get a single flight under $600 direct from Perth to Melbourne.
“The Dockers fans are already lining up, they’re hitting the Webjet website, just preparing for maybe what might be to come in September.”
Qantas have already responded to the demand by adding 18 extra flights between Perth and Melbourne from September 23 to 29.
It’s the earliest in the season they have ever put on additional flights.
“We’ve seen a big increase in bookings following Fremantle’s winning run and today we’ve added 18 more flights to help fans get to and from the big game at the end of September,” a Qantas Group spokesperson said on Monday.
“This is earliest in the season that we’ve put on additional flights for footy fans in recent memory, which reflects the big surge in demand we’re seeing.
“Qantas and Jetstar will keep monitoring demand and look at further options to add capacity as teams for each finals game are locked in.”
The move comes less than a week after Virgin Australia revealed they had already elevated prices in grand final week to deter fans from booking now.
“If we left the prices low, every seat would go, and you’d be months out with zero availability. Not just for sports fans, but for people who want to go visit, or for business people. There would be no seats,” CEO David Emerson told The West Australian.
“We don’t want to be in a position where there’s actually no way to travel on Virgin between Melbourne and Perth months ahead of time.
“That’s just not a good look for us. Therefore we increase the prices to hold back some of the seats because that’s the only way we have. We can’t stop sales otherwise.
“The point is to save seats so, if people, at the last minute, want to book, we still have some seats.
“But of course, if we add more seats, then we’re able to have a more affordable price because we know we’ll have seats for customers all the way to the end.
“What I could say is, if we add seats, it will lower the price.”
