Australian Air Travel Demand Remains Strong Into the Holidays

   Australian airline web traffic is well above pre-pandemic levels, web traffic near post-pandemic highs

Similarweb data shows web traffic to the seven of largest airlines that serve Australia remained strong in November 2022, a good sign for airline demand in the Australian summer and holiday seasons. After a red-hot period in the past six months, traffic remains elevated above pre-pandemic levels. Following a stringent lockdown that lasted well into 2021, it appears there is still pent-up demand for travel among Australians. Given this dynamic, holiday flights are likely to be crowded and expensive compared with last year.

Key takeaways    

• Aggregated web traffic for seven large airlines that provide service in Australia (Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, Singapore Air, Rex, Emirates and Qatar Airways)  rose 51% in November 2022, year over year, but was down 3% from October. November traffic was up 93% over November 2020 (during pandemic), and was up 35% over November 2019 (pre-pandemic).
• Qantas leads the industry in web traffic, with 9.2 million web visitors on desktop and mobile web in November 2022, representing a 40% share of traffic among the seven airlines. Jetstar (6.3 million or 27% share) took second place, followed by Virgin Australia (3.9 million, or 17%) and Singapore Air (1.5 million, 7%).
• Similarweb data on airline conversions (percentage of web visits that end up in a sale) suggests healthy demand, with November 2022 conversions up 25% over November 2021, up 58% over 2020 and up 43% over 2019. While Qantas leads in Web Traffic, Jetstar leads in converted visits by a wide margin, indicating that Jetstar’s web visitors have a greater intent to purchase than peers, perhaps enticed by lower fares.

Aggregated traffic suggests demand strength with less seasonality

We took a look at Similarweb data on aggregated web traffic to the landing pages of seven of the largest airlines serving Australia. The data shows that entering the Australian summer as well as holiday season, airlines are seeing strong demand. The airlines used in the below chart include Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, Singapore Air, Rex, Emirates, and Qatar Airways. The chart is showing strengths on a year-over-year basis. On an aggregate basis, total monthly traffic in November 2022 was up 51% over November 2021, was up 93% from the same month in 2020 and was up 35% versus October 2019, before the pandemic took hold. Since potential travelers have to visit an airline’s website prior to making a trip, web traffic is a good indicator of demand in upcoming months.

Qantas leads the pack in web traffic, followed by Jetstar and Virgin Australia

The chart below shows monthly web traffic for each of the seven airlines we looked at in this report. You can see that Qantas led the industry in monthly visits in November 2022, with 9.2 million, followed by Jetstar with 6.3 million, then Virgin Australia with 3.9 million visits. Qantas has held a lead over the group for most of the past three years. 

As a percentage of the group, Qantas made up 40% of the seven airlines in this group in November 2022, followed by Jetstar at 27%, Virgin Australia at 17% and Singapore Air at 7%. You can see the relative market shares (as represented by monthly web traffic) in the chart below.

Conversion rates well above pre-pandemic, Jetstar leads, Qantas lags on this metric

Similarweb data on airline conversions (visits to an airline website that lead to a sale) are well above pre-pandemic levels in November 2022, having shown significant improvement over the past three years. November 2022 conversions in aggregate were up 25% over November 2021, 58% over October 2020, and surprisingly, were up 43% over October 2019.

However, November converted visits did fall 15% from October. Airline conversions are a strong leading indicator of future travel, so with conversions higher than the past two years, you would expect flights to be full and expensive versus the past two holiday travel seasons.

In terms of the individual airlines, conversions usually follow market share, but not always. Despite trailing Qantas in web traffic, Jetstar has sharply higher conversions. For the month of November 2022, Jetstar converted 204k web visits, against web traffic of 6.3 million, for a conversion rate of 3.2%. Second place was actually Virgin Australia, which converted 169k of its 3.9 million web visitors, for a conversion rate of 4.3%, which led all peers we studied for this report. Lagging in third place was Qantas, which converted 148k of its 9.2 million web visits, for a conversion rate of 1.6%.

You can see converted visits over time in the chart below. It’s surprising that Qantas conversion rate is so much lower than its peers, and is perhaps indicative of a harder-to-navigate website and/or a less appealing mix of price and destinations than its peers.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Methodology

Disclaimer: All data, reports and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb are based on data obtained from third parties, including estimations and extrapolations based on such data. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of the materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on the materials.

by Jim Corridore

Senior Analyst

Jim provides insights across multiple sectors. With 30 years on Wall Street and numerous awards for stock-picking, he is a SUNY Albany graduate.