Airline to pay £53m settlement over selling tickets for cancelled flights
Qantas is to pay a A$100m (£53m) penalty and A$20m in compensation to passengers to settle a legal battle over tickets it sold for cancelled flights.
The fine from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the biggest ever for an Australian airline and among the largest globally in the sector.
The ACCC sued Qantas last summer, claiming the carrier broke consumer law when it sold tickets to more than 8,000 flights without disclosing they had been cancelled.
In one particular case, Qantas kept selling tickets for a Sydney to San Francisco flight for 40 days after it had been cancelled, the regulator said.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the ACCC, said “Qantas’ conduct was egregious and unacceptable”.
She added: “Many consumers will have made holiday, business and travel plans after booking on a phantom flight that had been cancelled.
“We expect that this penalty, if accepted by the Court, will send a strong deterrence message to other companies.
“Importantly, it demonstrates that we take action to ensure that companies operating in Australia communicate clearly, accurately and honestly with their customers at all times.”
Qantas’s “ghost flight” debacle fuelled a national scandal about the performance of Australia’s flag carrier. Customer satisfaction with the airline has plummeted.
Vanessa Hudson, chief executive of the airline, said the agreement represents “another important step forward as we work towards restoring confidence in the national carrier”.
She said the pandemic was to blame for some of the administrative failings.
Ms Hudson said: “When flying resumed after the Covid shutdown, we recognise Qantas let down customers and fell short of our own standards. We know many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide cancellation notifications in a timely manner and we are sincerely sorry.
“The return to travelling was already stressful for many and we did not deliver enough support for customers and did not have the technology and systems in place to support our people.”
More than 86,000 customers will share the compensation pot, with those who bought domestic tickets entitled to $225 apiece and international travellers entitled to $450.
The tickets were sold by the Australian airline between May 2021 and August 2023. Qantas has promised to contact all affected customers over the next two months.
The ACCC warned that scammers were contacting people who are potentially eligible for compensation.