Qantas announced it has reached an agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to settle the court proceedings filed in August last year. The allegations suggested that Qantas had advertised and sold tickets for over 8,000 flights that had already been cancelled in its internal system. These revelations led to the early retirement of the former CEO Alan Joyce.
In a statement, Qantas stated it would “commence a projected AU$20 million remediation program for impacted passengers, with payments to customers ranging from AU$225 to AU$450, and subject to the approval of the Federal Court of Australia, will pay a AU$100 million civil penalty”.
During a monitoring period spanning from May to July 2022, the flight data served as the foundation for the initial legal allegations. This period witnessed the cancellation of 15,000 out of 66,000 Qantas services. However, the airline stated that, in collaboration with the ACCC towards a settlement, it had discovered thousands more cases of customers being sold tickets for flights that had already been cancelled.
The chair of the ACCC, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said as part of the settlement Qantas had admitted that it misled consumers. “Qantas’s conduct was egregious and unacceptable. Many consumers will have made holiday, business and travel plans after booking on a phantom flight that had been cancelled.” She also said Qantas has also undertaken to “not engage in this type of conduct in the future”.
The Qantas CEO, Vanessa Hudson, stated “today represents another important step forward as we work towards restoring confidence in the national carrier … we have since updated our processes and are investing in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
