It’s never been cheaper to fly, says Qantas boss Alan Joyce.

Just one week’s wage will get the average worker an airline ticket to London, the chief executive of the world’s oldest continually operated airline said.

He said the cost flying had dropped significantly in the past 70 years due to improved technology and the airline’s innovative use of new aircraft, such as the A380.

“(In 1935) it used to cost 122 weeks of an average person’s salary, in 1960… that airfare went down to 20 weeks of an average person’s salary, and with the A380 it’s one week of average person’s salary,” Mr Joyce said.

“The longevity of Qantas over 92 years is because we continue to (introduce) product innovation and product change.”

More Australians were taking advantage of the strong Australian dollar and travelling overseas, especially on low-cost airlines such as Jetstar, Mr Joyce said.

“When we set up Jetstar in 2004, again that was a new innovation because we could see that was the way the market was going.

“Ten per cent of Jetstar’s travellers have never flown before, so it’s a completely new market,” he said.

Mr Joyce was speaking at a business forum hosted by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Sydney.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday reported a 4.8 per cent fall in the cost of international holiday travel in the March quarter while general prices (the consumer price index) rose by just 0.1 per cent in the quarter for an annual pace of 1.6 per cent.