CWT Solutions Group and CAPA – Centre for Aviation have identified a rise of up to five per cent year-on-year in Average Ticket Price (ATP) to Perth from almost all major Australian cities while passenger numbers and available seats for the Western Australian city have decreased year-on-year.
CAPA and CWT Solutions Group’s newest Business Travel Pulse report, which for this edition focuses on Perth, also noted that passenger numbers are slightly decreasing year-on-year (-0.9 per cent 2016 versus 2015), while available seats have fallen at a faster rate (2.8 per cent on the same period). As a result, there is future potential for constrained capacity if available seats continue to decrease at a greater pace than passenger numbers.
“Perth is at a very interesting and probably pivotal stage in its aviation and tourism development,” said CAPA executive chairman, Peter Harbison.
“Internationally it is proportionately the best connected city in Australia. As the shape of mining-related travel changes and stabilises, the need to generate a renewed impetus for leisure and corporate travel becomes essential. With a whole new halo around the forthcoming Qantas non-stop service and the redevelopment of Perth Airport, there is tremendous scope for promoting new opportunities.”
The report also reveals that hotel occupancy rates in Perth for the year ending May 2017 have increased by two per cent, reaching 80.6 per cent, despite a last-room available rate decrease of five per cent.
Richard Johnson, director, Asia Pacific, CWT Solutions Group, said: “Perth has a strong pipeline of new properties opening over the next year and a half, despite the market looking relatively unstable and delicate with softening demand.
“Given the abundant room inventory available, companies should consider adding more hotels to the RFP process for their corporate hotel programmes and lock in the most competitive rates.”
The industry remains optimistic that Perth will improve into 2018. The introduction of new services, in particular Qantas Airways’ launch of the direct Perth-London (Heathrow) route in Mar-2018, will be the catalyst for this improvement.
“Qantas’ direct Perth-London flight has the potential to be a game-changer,” opined Johnson. “It wouldn’t be surprising to see a good number of passengers currently transiting through Asia or the Middle East switching over to this route. Being able to make a domestic stopover could see layover times in Perth for both inbound and outbound travellers increase.”
Recently, Tigerair Australia commenced four-times-weekly Perth-Brisbane services, Batik Air commenced twice-daily Perth-Denpasar services, while China Eastern is reviewing the possibility of launching daily Perth-Shanghai services. With the added potential for direct services from Japan to link the many Japanese company interests in Perth, the outlook is generally bright.
To download a copy of the report, please visit http://transform.carlsonwagonlit.com/btpper-download.
