Aussies snap up 70,000 cheap fares in five hours

Aussies have snapped up 70,000 Jetstar cheap fares in just five hours highlighting the massive pent up demand for travel. Jetstar says its sale fares have been selling at a rate of 220 per minute, which is nearly 40 times higher the rate of bookings on a normal day. The airline said the most popular sale routes so far include Melbourne to the Gold Coast, Melbourne to Cairns and Sydney to the Gold Coast. Jetstar says that thousands of low fares are still available in the three-day Jetstar sale, including Sydney to Byron Bay from $35, Brisbane to Cairns from $69, and Melbourne to Maroochydore from $69. Qantas' domestic bookings in the first few hours of its triple points sale for frequent flyers were more than double recent levels. The airline said that flight searches were more than three times higher than at any time since travel restrictions came in. The national carrier is offering triple points on all flights between 27 June and 31 October across 92 routes and 57 destinations. The sale runs until 24 June. Brisbane to Cairns and Perth to Broome are the two most popular Qantas routes sold. The Jetstar sale runs until 23:59 Monday 22 June, unless sold out prior, and includes fares on 35 routes to 15 destinations across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia.