Qantas to pay $132 million after selling already canceled flights

Qantas has admitted misleading thousands of customers about flight cancellations for years and will pay NZ$132 million in fines and compensation to Australia.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued the airline in Australia’s Federal Court after alleging Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by continuing to sell the tickets.

The competition watchdog announced today that the parties had agreed to ask the court to impose a fine of A$100 million (NZ$110 million) after Qantas admitted conduct had lasted a year longer than the ACCC claimed.

Payments to 86,597 customers, to whom Qantas had already decided to cancel ticket sales between May 2021 and August 2023, will share approximately A$20 million (NZ$22 million) in compensation.

Qantas will pay AU$225 (NZ$250) to domestic customers and AU$450 (NZ$500) to international customers.

It is unclear how many New Zealanders might be eligible for the compensation program.

“Qantas’ conduct was egregious and unacceptable,” ACCC chair Gina Cas-Gottlied said in a statement.

“Many customers will have made holiday, business and travel plans after booking on a ghost flight that had been cancelled.”

The commission alleged that Qantas announced tickets for more than 8,000 canceled flights between May 2021 and July 2022.

It further alleged that for more than 10,000 flights scheduled to depart between May and July 2022, Qantas failed to promptly inform customers that the flights had been cancelled.

Qantas now admits this behavior continued until August 26, 2023, affecting flights scheduled to depart between May 2022 and May 2024.

The ACCC announced it was suing Qantas on August 31.

Qantas has agreed not to repeat this behavior in the future and to make payments to affected customers as soon as possible.

It also pledged to notify customers of canceled flights as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours after deciding to cancel a flight and to stop selling tickets for such trips within 24 hours.

The commitment also applied to the Jetstar subsidiary.

“When flights resumed after the Covid shutdown, we recognized that Qantas had let its customers down and failed to meet our own standards,” Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson said.

“Returning to travel was already stressful for many and we did not provide enough support to customers and did not have the technology and systems in place to support our people.”

Payments would be available through a dedicated online portal facilitated by Deloitte and would be independently audited.

Qantas would notify affected customers by email from June.