Because of the increase in the arrival caps from 1 June 2021 (raising the cap from 500 to 1300 arrivals per week), there was a better chance of getting an economy seat during June if you were trying to fly into Brisbane. However, due to the caps halving on 14 July, Brisbane’s cap is currently 650 per week – the good news is that 650 is still higher than the Brisbane’s cap prior to June (see chart below).
The bad news is that the airlines have not responded to July 14’s halved caps by reducing their flights into Brisbane. Instead, most airlines have increased the number of flights into Brisbane, meaning less passengers on each flight. Unfortunately, this means that it is harder than ever to get a flight into Brisbane (and more expensive as the costs need to be shared with fewer passengers on each flight).
My recommendation is to book a ticket now for the distant future (at least four or more months away from now). However, if you can, book a first/business class ticket to give you more chance of not being bumped off your flight closer to the date of the departure. Any tickets to fly to Brisbane in the next month or two will either be nearly impossible to find and/or will cost an arm and a leg. If you need to fly anytime soon (in the next month or two), please see my post:
To understand the situation better with the decrease in caps and increase in flights, see my post:
