Thousands of seats on flights added for AFL grand final after Lions victory
Major airlines have added thousands of extra seats to help fans attend the AFL grand final next weekend, following the Brisbane Lions’ victory on Saturday night.
The Lions advanced to the grand final after defeating Hawthorn in a dramatic nine-point win, which resulted in Hawks fans throwing bottles at umpires.
They will play the Fremantle Dockers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground next Saturday, after the Dockers beat the Sydney Swans by 12 points on Friday night.
If the Lions win, it will be their third finals victory in a row after defeating the Geelong Cats last year and Sydney the year before. They also made the finals in 2023, losing by four points to Collingwood.
Following the weekend’s wins, major airlines announced extra flights to get fans from Brisbane and Perth to Melbourne for the big game.
Virgin Australia, the official airline of the AFL, added more than 1000 seats on flights between Brisbane and Melbourne and nearly 4000 additional seats between Perth and Melbourne.
Virgin has added five flights from Brisbane to Melbourne, with two departing on Wednesday, two departing on Thursday and one departing on Friday. It has also added one additional return flight on Sunday night.
The airline will have 110,000 seats going to and from Melbourne next week.
Qantas and Jetstar have also added seven flights between Brisbane and Melbourne for the grand final, adding about 1160 seats to the existing thousands already on the schedule.
Three flights have been added from Brisbane to Melbourne on Friday, and additional return flights on Sunday have been added as well.
One-way fares on these flights are available from $234 with Jetstar and $375 with Qantas.
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