How salary sacrifice flights affect your take-home pay

Salary sacrifice flights: what you need to know

When you enter a salary sacrifice arrangement, you agree with your employer to receive less before-tax salary in exchange for benefits of similar value. This reduces your taxable income, so you pay less income tax and Medicare levy. One benefit you can include is flights – either as a specific perk or as part of a broader package. The Australian Taxation Office explains that salary sacrificing, also called salary packaging, can cover a wide range of benefits, and there is no restriction on the types of benefits you can include. However, if the benefit is a fringe benefit, your employer may have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT), and they might ask you to make an employee contribution to reduce that cost.

How salary sacrifice reduces your tax

Your taxable income is your salary minus the amount you sacrifice. For example, if you earn $65,000 and sacrifice $17,353 for a car (as in the ATO’s example), your taxable income drops to $47,647. Using 2026–27 tax rates, you would pay $5,082.10 in income tax plus $952.94 Medicare levy (2% of $47,647), leaving you with $41,611.96 after tax and the sacrifice amount. Without the arrangement, you would have $53,412 after tax but then pay $11,500 in car expenses, leaving $41,912 – slightly less. With an employee contribution of $7,000, your net disposable income rises to $43,593.40. The same principle applies to flights: sacrificing salary for flights can improve your take-home position if structured correctly.

Award rates for cabin crew

If you work as a flight attendant or cabin crew member, your minimum pay is set by the Aircraft Cabin Crew Award 2020. Fair Work sets the following minimum weekly rates for full-time employees:

• Cabin crew member: $1,097.40 per week ($28.88 per hour)
• Cabin crew supervisor (narrow-bodied aircraft, 4 or more crew): $1,280.40 per week ($33.69 per hour)
• Cabin crew manager (wide-bodied aircraft): $1,495.50 per week ($39.36 per hour)

In addition, you must be paid a flying allowance of $18.40 per hour for scheduled block hours. These rates are before tax and before any salary sacrifice arrangement. Your employer must also pay superannuation guarantee contributions of 12% on top of your ordinary time earnings, as required from 1 July 2026.

Take-home pay after tax and Medicare

To work out what reaches your bank account each fortnight, start with your gross pay, subtract any salary sacrifice amount, then apply income tax and the Medicare levy. The Medicare levy is 2% of your taxable income, but if your taxable income is below $28,011 (single) you pay nothing, and between $28,011 and $35,013 you pay a reduced rate of 10 cents per dollar over the lower threshold. For most full-time workers earning above $35,013, the full 2% applies. The low-income tax offset (LITO) can also reduce your tax: up to $700 if your taxable income is $37,500 or less, then phasing out.

For example, a cabin crew member earning the award minimum of $1,097.40 per week ($57,064.80 annually) plus flying allowance would have a higher gross. But if they salary sacrifice flights worth, say, $5,000 per year, their taxable income drops to around $52,065. Using 2026–27 rates, tax would be about $4,020 plus 30c for each dollar over $45,000 (about $2,119.50) = $6,139.50, minus LITO (if applicable), plus Medicare levy of $1,041.30 (2% of $52,065). Net annual take-home would be roughly $44,884, or about $1,726 per fortnight. This is an estimate; actual amounts depend on your exact salary, allowances, and salary sacrifice structure.

Important considerations

• Salary sacrifice must be agreed before you earn the income. You cannot sacrifice salary you have already accrued.
• The sacrificed amount must not be accessible to you as cash. If you don’t receive the benefit and it is cashed out, it becomes taxable salary.
• Salary sacrificed super contributions are not fringe benefits and do not attract FBT, but they count toward your concessional contributions cap.
• From 1 April 2027, work-related items provided through salary sacrifice will no longer be exempt from FBT, so check with your employer.
• Salary sacrifice can affect government benefits, child support, and the Medicare levy surcharge. Seek financial advice before entering an arrangement.

For more on how salary packaging works, see our Salary packaging guide. To calculate your own take-home pay, use the Take-home pay tool. The Tax and Medicare page explains the levy and thresholds in detail. And for the latest benchmarks, visit Benchmarks.