Australian cheap flight war

A budget air price war has erupted in Australia after two carriers made available some 300,000 air tickets at just AUD29 each. Virgin Blue said it was selling tickets at five times its normal rate after putting 200,000 seats up for sale at the discounted price, while Jetstar, the new Qantas offshoot, reported similar interest in the 100,00 seats it had up for sale. At one point the new carrier was selling 200 seats per minute and its website was receiving 600,000 hits an hour. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, both carriers’ websites crashed at one point, and travel agents also struggled to cope with the rush. The Flight Centre chain of stores found that its system could not cope with the huge interest, and soon collapsed. One unnamed consultant in Brisbane told the newspaper: “They all came flooding in this morning – and got stroppy and left.” Jetstar released its allocation of 100,000 cheap tickets to celebrate its launch; Virgin Blue retaliated more or less immediately by doubling that amount. ALSO READ: ABTA FRAUD LATEST: Executive named Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad