Sydney: Australian airline Qantas agreed to pay a $66 million fine Monday after a bruising “ghost flights” scandal, following accusations it stored promoting seats on long-cancelled journeys.
The nation’s competitors watchdog mentioned Qantas “admitted that it misled shoppers” by promoting seats on tens of hundreds of flights — regardless of these flights being cancelled.
Qantas may even fork out $13 million in compensation to 86,000 travellers impacted by the cancellations and botched rescheduling.
“Qantas’ conduct was egregious and unacceptable,“ mentioned Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairperson Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
“Many shoppers could have made vacation, enterprise and journey plans after reserving on a phantom flight that had been cancelled.”
Qantas mentioned that, in some circumstances, clients had been booked on flights that had been cancelled “two or extra” days prior.
Qantas chief govt Vanessa Hudson mentioned the airline “let down clients and fell wanting our personal requirements”.
“We know a lot of our clients had been affected by our failure to present cancellation notifications in a well timed method and we’re sincerely sorry,“ she mentioned in an announcement.
The US$66 million (Aus$100 million) fine is topic to court docket approval.
Long-dubbed the “Spirit of Australia”, 103-year-old nationwide provider Qantas has been on a mission to restore its status.
It has confronted a client backlash stirred up by hovering ticket costs, claims of sloppy service and the sacking of 1,700 floor employees throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Qantas has beforehand defended promoting seats on cancelled flights.
It argued that slightly than shopping for tickets for particular seats, clients purchase a “bundle of rights” and a promise the airline will “do its finest to get shoppers the place they need to be on time”.
Qantas posted an annual revenue of $1.1 billion final yr, capping a significant monetary rebound after the journey turbulence of the Covid years.
Veteran chief govt Alan Joyce introduced his early retirement amid a barrage of criticism in September final yr.
