How to grab the best-value Christmas/new year flights to Australia

The most sought-after dates are under £1,300 return, with high-quality off-peak trips available for under £1,000

A festive trip to Australia means you can catch Sydney’s impressive New Year’s Eve firework display (Getty)

New Year’s Day 2020 began optimistically, with travellers and the airline industry anticipating the best-ever year for aviation in terms of opportunities available and value offered. (Environmentalists, conversely, feared yet another record-breaking 12 months.)

No one knows how 2020 will end. And that helps explain why right now could be an excellent time to book your Christmas getaway.

London Heathrow to Sydney is by far the biggest Europe-Australia route. Normally, once Easter is out of the way, the peak departure dates are extremely well sold – with fares topping £1,500 even on “sub-optimal” routes with more than one stop or awkward stopovers.

On the most sought-after dates – the last Saturday before 25 December and the first Saturday of January – prices approach £2,000. The demand is understandable: who doesn’t want to exchange chilly, dark Britain for the pleasure of waking up close to the newly reopened Bondi beach and watching the New Year’s Eve fireworks over Sydney harbour?

Travelling back over the first weekend of the new year makes the most of the midsummer warmth down under.

Yet on the “superpeak” dates, a top-class carrier, Korean Air, is offering a fare of £1,269 return. That, by the way, is booking direct with the carrier; many travellers have found that the wretched Covid-19 crisis has been made worse by the unhelpful nature of some online travel agents.

The timings are excellent. Though not the fastest, the 6.50pm departure from Heathrow gives a mid-afternoon arrival in Incheon airport in South Korea. You have four hours to recharge, enjoy the indulgences of the airport or even venture outside before another early-evening flight, which touches down in Sydney just before 7am on Monday morning.

Coming home, you even get some help with jetlag. The timings are very civilised: 9am from Sydney, arriving just after sunset in Seoul, but in time for dinner and an overnight stay at one of the excellent budget hotels close to the airport.

Next morning you have time for a stroll around the very pleasant harbour city of Incheon before a 1pm departure. Thanks to the wonders of time zones you’ll be back at Heathrow at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon, ready to tackle whatever lies ahead in 2021.

And if your plans change and you need to adjust the date? Book by Thursday 30 April and Korean Air will allow you to change your booking without a fee.

Many other airlines, routes, fares and dates are available – and again, the optimistic early booker can take advantage of some exceptional deals. Between Manchester and Melbourne, Cathay Pacific is promising easy one-stop connections in Hong Kong. Most services are due to be operated by the state-of-the-art Airbus A350, which offers the best economy class in the skies.

Flying in the first half of December and returning in the second week of January 2021, fares of £952 return are widely available. Even on 23 December, returning on New Year’s Eve, the cost is still only £1,032.

And if for some reason the trip is cancelled by the airline? You claim a full refund and come up with a new travel dream.