Competitors watchdog says nationwide service’s promoting of cancelled flights was ‘egregious and unacceptable’.
Australia’s flagship airline Qantas has agreed to pay $120 million Australian {dollars} ($79m) to settle a lawsuit over the sale of tickets for already cancelled flights.
The airline pays a fantastic of 100 million Australian {dollars} ($66m) and supply compensation of 20 million Australian {dollars} ($13m) to greater than 86,000 clients after promoting seats for hundreds of “ghost flights” in 2021 and 2022.
“Qantas’ conduct was egregious and unacceptable. Many shoppers could have made vacation, enterprise and journey plans after reserving on a phantom flight that had been cancelled,” mentioned Australian Competitors and Client Fee Chairperson Gina Cass-Gottlieb in a press release on Monday.
“Importantly, it demonstrates that we take motion to make sure that firms working in Australia talk clearly, precisely and actually with their clients always,” Cass-Gottlieb added.
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson mentioned the settlement, which is topic to court docket approval, was an “necessary step ahead as we work in the direction of restoring confidence within the nationwide service.”
“When flying resumed after the COVID shutdown, we recognise Qantas let down clients and fell wanting our personal requirements. We all know a lot of our clients have been affected by our failure to offer cancellation notifications in a well timed method and we’re sincerely sorry,” Hudson mentioned.
“The return to travelling was already hectic for a lot of and we didn’t ship sufficient help for purchasers and didn’t have the expertise and methods in place to help our folks.”
Qantas, which reported an annual revenue of $1.1bn final 12 months, has confronted a barrage of controversies in recent times over rising ticket costs, claims of poor service requirements, and the firing of 1,700 floor workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September, then-CEO Alan Joyce introduced ahead his retirement by two months after 15 years within the high job amid widespread criticism of the airline.