Australia’s luxury travellers are proving resilient in the face of the global fuel crisis – but a capacity crunch on flights to Europe is emerging as the real pressure point, with Mediterranean cruise season just weeks away.
Penny Spencer, managing director of Spencer Travel Holdings, says her clients are rerouting rather than cancelling, but securing seats has become increasingly difficult and expensive as travellers pile onto alternative carriers to avoid Middle East flight corridors.
“It’s really rerouting, not cancelling,” Spencer said. “A lot of them obviously have to get to the cruise ships in the Med because they’ve made bookings – and the cruise lines are not cancelling. So if they don’t get to their cruise, they lose that cruise, which is big money.”
With Mediterranean cruise season running from late May through to September, the clock is ticking. Flights via Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific are full across all cabin classes, with fares up an estimated 20 to 30 per cent. “Across the different classes, it’s hard to get seats,” Spencer said.
Spencer Travel moved quickly when the crisis broke, proactively rebooking clients onto alternative carriers before prices spiked. “What we did early on was cover people on other flights,” she said. “Let’s say someone had an Emirates flight – we covered them on Singapore. As time gets closer, in June or July, we’ll probably cancel Emirates if it’s still going on, and they’ll fly Singapore.” The early action secured more reasonable fares, though that window has now closed for those who didn’t act fast.
Despite the pressure, Spencer said the calibre of her clientele is working in the industry’s favour. “They’re very well-travelled travellers, so they’re not panicking – they’re not nervous,” she said. Travellers are routing via the United States, Canada and Singapore rather than abandoning their plans altogether.
Spencer, who has navigated September 11, the Gulf War, bird flu and pilot strikes during her career, said this disruption does not compare to those that triggered mass cancellations – and is nowhere near the devastation of COVID. “COVID was the absolute worst – we had nothing to sell. We were a supermarket with empty shelves. This is very different to that scenario.”
For staff still carrying scars from the pandemic, she offered a grounded perspective. “There’s definitely post-traumatic syndrome from COVID,” she acknowledged, “but we’re just trying to remain positive and move forward”.
