Qantas Airways and Australia’s consumer watchdog announced on Monday that the airline has agreed to pay 120 million Australian dollars ($79 million) in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of canceled flights.
Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed a Federal Court lawsuit against the Sydney-based airline. The commission said that Qantas had advertised tickets for almost 8,000 canceled flights between May 2021 and July 2022, thereby engaging in false, misleading, or deceptive conduct.
To resolve the lawsuit, Qantas consented to pay the Australian government AU$100 million ($66 million) in fines and an estimated AU$20 million ($13 million) to the more than 86,000 impacted consumers.
As we strive to rebuild trust in the national carrier, today is another significant step forward, according to a statement released by Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson.
After the COVID suspension, Qantas acknowledged that it had disappointed its customers and not lived up to our expectations when flights restarted.
As Alan Joyce was replaced as the airline’s CEO in November of last year, Hudson expressed regret, saying, “We know many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide cancellation notifications promptly.”
The deal is yet to be approved by a Federal Court judge.
In addition to various remedies already offered by Qantas, such as refunds and alternate flights, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stated that Qantas had paid AU$225 ($149) to domestic ticket holders and AU$450 ($298) for international tickets.
A statement from Cass-Gottlieb read, “We are pleased to have secured these admissions by Qantas that it misled its customers and its agreement that a very significant penalty is required as a result of this conduct.”
Laptops 1000“Qantas’ actions were despicable and unforgivable. She continued that many customers would have booked a phantom trip that was canceled and then made plans for vacation, business, or travel.
Additionally, Qantas acknowledged that their misbehavior persisted until August of last year—more than a year later than the regulator had claimed in court, according to Cass-Gottlieb.
After years of losses as a result of the epidemic, Qantas reported a record profit for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2023, prompting the regulator to file the lawsuit.
Compared to a loss of AU$1.86 billion ($1.2 billion) the year before, its underlying profit for 2022–2023 was AU$2.47 billion ($1.6 billion) before taxes.
After taxes, Qantas declared a profit for the most recent year of AU$1.74 billion ($1.13 billion).
