Airfare prices have been on a rise since fuel has become increasingly expensive, and Pacific Blue is the most recent airline to boost its ticket prices. Qantas and Virgin Blue are two other airlines to have announced increases in their ticket prices in the last month.

Pacific Blue has followed suit and added between $4 and $10 to their domestic fares. Pacific Blue is a budget airline and has always offered the cheapest economy fares on the Australian market; this recent surcharge rise has now made their fares the most expensive.

Phil Boeyen is a spokesman for Pacific Blue and has said that the airline avoided the rise in fares for as long as possible, but expensive fuel prices have forced fares up. The new fares take effect from the beginning of this month.

The Australian travel industry has seen a 30% growth of air passengers in recent years, and consequently airlines have been able to drop their ticket prices by up to 20%, however many airlines have had to bump up their surcharges to compensate for rising fuel costs.

Pacific Blue has also cut flights recently; the number of daily flights between Auckland, New Zealand and Wellington Australia has been reduced. They still have 5 flights running on this route however, see their website for more information on these flights http://bookings.virginblue.com.au/. This flight reduction has taken place to make way for a new air service between Christchurch in New Zealand’s South Island and Dunedin which is scheduled to launch on July 1^st 2008.