How to fly from the UK to Australia for £560 return

Fly to Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne

Flights to Sydney start from £575 (Getty Images)

Every so often, Jack Sheldon from Jack’s Flight Club selects a flight deal from the UK for Independent readers that you can’t afford to miss. This week: return flights to Australia for £560 return.

Air travel can be exhausting at the best of times, so if you’re taking the mammoth trip to Australia it’s good to do it in the comfort of a good airline such as Etihad.

With this deal, you can choose from morning or evening departures on some of the quickest overall journeys Down Under with just one stop in Abu Dhabi.

How to book

Head to Google Flights and enter either London or Manchester as your departure airport along with Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane as the destination. You may want to add a “Etihad” filter to the airlines to help find the dates included in this deal.

Use Google Flights’ calendar tool to help you highlight the best travel dates (they’ll show up in green).

You can book directly with the airline for slightly more flexibility to make changes later, or, to save an additional £50 or so, head over to Skyscanner, re-enter your itinerary and book with the online travel agent offering the lowest fares.

Returns from London (LHR)

Sydney (SYD) – £575

Brisbane (BNE) – £581

Melbourne (MEL) – £560

Returns from Manchester (MAN)

Sydney (SYD) – £577

Brisbane (BNE) – £570

Melbourne (MEL) – £579

When to fly

The lowest fares are available between March and November, with some dates departing in mid-August too.

When to book

These fares should be available until 9 March, although popular dates could sell out sooner.

Pro tip

Etihad is one of the airlines that lets you mix and match destinations, so you can explore two of these cities in one trip just by booking a “multi-city” itinerary, and setting your return from another of Australia's east coast cities. Then just book a cheap regional flight between them.