Australia is the 12th most expensive country to catch a flight, according to online travel agency Kiwi.com's second annual flight price index.
In other words, Australia is the 69th most affordable country to fly from — with the average flight costing $39.45 ($US29.39) per 100km travelled.
Australia's ranking slipped five places as it was ranked 64th for affordability in last year's results.
This index is the result of research conducted by Kiwi.com, which compares the cost of domestic and international air travel across 80 countries.
Kiwi.com said the purpose of its index is "to help make travellers aware of countries that offer good opportunities for affordable travel".
To calculate the rankings, it analysed over a million flights from each country to find an average price of short-haul and long-haul flights, on both low-cost and full-service airlines.
In first place, Malaysia was crowned the most affordable for flights - the average price was $5.63 ($US4.18) per 100km of travel.
Among the top 10 cheapest countries (after Malaysia) were Bulgaria, India, Turkey, Romania, Indonesia, Portugal, Thailand, Sweden and Spain.
So which nations were more expensive than Australia for air travel?
That honour goes to Belgium (ranked last or 80th) — at $73.55 ($US54.63) per 100km travelled.
Rounding up the top 10 most expensive countries are the Netherlands, Qatar, Chile, United Arab Emirates, Solomon Islands, Serbia, Austria, Lebanon and Oman.
So why are Australian flights so expensive?
Higher labour costs
"Labour costs make up about 30 per cent of total flight costs," said Dr Tony Webber, the CEO of Airline Intelligence & Research and a former Qantas chief economist.
Indeed, many of the top 10 most affordable countries flights in Kiwi.com's index are ones where their workers earn relatively low wages — such as Malaysia, India, Romania and Thailand.
Australian wages are much higher.
The International Labor Organisation (ILO) found that Australia's real average wages have grown by 10 per cent in the past decade.
The United States had much slower wage growth (at 5 per cent), while real wages actually declined in Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom, (by 2, 6 and 7 per cent, respectively).
