Qantas to pay a hefty penalty: Australian airline to reimburse $79 million to its customers for booking tickets on cancelled flights

A Qantas Boeing 737 passenger plane takes off from Sydney Airport. (File photo: AP).

Qantas Airways has agreed to reimburse 120 million Australian dollars ($79 million) in compensation as a penalty for putting up the sale of cancelled flights, Australia‘s consumer regulation and the airline said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken legal action against a Sydney-based airline in the Federal Court in 2023. The airline has been accused of duping customers by engaging in misleading advertisements regarding the selling of tickets for the cancelled flights from May 2021 to July 2022 for more than 8,000 flights.

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Vanessa Hudson, chief executive of Qantas said, ‘’We have recognised that Qantas Airways has disappointed customers and has fallen from its standards. It happened just after flying was resumed back after covid hiatus. We failed to provide prior information regarding cancellations of the flights and failed our passengers. We are genuinely sorry’’.

86,000 passengers affected  

Around 86,000 flyers have been affected by the fraud and Qantas has given consent to resolve the suit by paying a fine of AU$100 million ($66 million) to the Australian government and a total of AU$20 million ($13 million) to its customers. The terms of the settlement have not been accepted by the Federal Court yet.

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Inclusive of repayment and providing alternative flights, Qantas will pay AU$450 ($298) for international reservations and AU$225 ($149) for passengers who bought domestic flight tickets, informed Gina Cass Gottlieb, ACCC chair.

Qantas’ conduct was unacceptable and extremely bad. They have accepted their misconduct in which they continue to fool the customers till August 2023 and have informed that they are ready to pay a hefty penalty for the same. Numerous flyers must have planned their travel, holidays and business plans after booking their tickets on the cancelled flights, Gottlieb asserted.

(With inputs from AP)