- Qantas fully accepts it let customers down during the post-COVID restart, including with high cancellation rates.
- While mistakes were made by Qantas, the ACCC’s legal case ignores the realities of the aviation industry – airlines can’t guarantee specific flight times.
- All customers on cancelled flights were offered an alternative flight or refund; there was no ‘fee for no service’.
Qantas has now filed its defence with the Federal Court in response to claims made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in August 2023.
As we’ve said from the start of this case, we fully acknowledge that the period examined by the ACCC was extremely difficult for our customers. Restarting flying after the COVID shutdowns proved a challenge for the whole industry, with staff shortages and supply chain issues coinciding with huge pent-up demand. Qantas cancelled thousands of flights as a result and there were many unacceptable delays. While we restarted safely, we got many other things wrong and, for that, we have sincerely apologised.
In purely legal terms, the ACCC’s case ignores a fundamental reality and a key condition that applies when airlines sell a ticket. While all airlines work hard to operate flights at their scheduled times, no airline can guarantee that. That’s because the nature of travel – when weather and operational issues mean delays and cancellations are inevitable and unavoidable – makes such a guarantee impossible. (This is acknowledged on the ACCC’s own website[1].)
For this reason, our promise is to get customers on their way to their destination as close as possible to the flight time they book, either on their original or an alternative service at no additional cost. If not, we offer a full refund. This is consistent with our obligations under consumer law and is what we did during the period the ACCC examined.
For instance, in the examples of cancellations identified in the ACCC’s media release:
- 100 per cent of impacted domestic passengers were offered same-day flights departing prior to or within one hour after their scheduled departure time.
- 98 per cent of impacted international passengers were offered reaccommodation options on flights within a day of their scheduled departure date.
- In most cases, customers were rebooked on these alternative flights weeks or months ahead of when they were actually due to travel, allowing them to plan.
The ACCC’s case relates to cancelled flights that were left on sale for longer than 48 hours. We acknowledge there were delays and we sincerely regret that this occurred, but crucially, it does not equate to Qantas obtaining a ‘fee for no service’ because customers were reaccommodated on other flights as close as possible to their original time or offered a full refund.
Qantas did not delay communicating with our passengers for commercial gain. Nor did we cancel flights to protect slots, particularly given slot waivers were in place at most airports during that time. The primary reasons for the delay were:
- giving our teams time to establish alternative travel options for customers during a period of
massive upheaval;
- avoiding further blowouts in call centre wait times; and
- in the case of longer delays, some human error.
(A more detailed explanation of these factors can be found in the FAQ.)
In summary, Qantas fully acknowledges that the period of the post-COVID restart was deeply disappointing and frustrating for customers, and difficult for our people. Mistakes were made. While this level of upheaval is hopefully never repeated, we have strengthened our systems and processes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
