The scale of Qantas’ alleged deception is shocking. It allegedly sold tickets for 8000 services scheduled to depart between May and July last year,weeks after the decision had already been made by the airline to nix the flights.
Compounding the alleged offences,Qantas allegedly failed to inform any customers of 10,000 cancelled flights for,on average,18 days. In some cases,it was allegedly up to 48 days.
Within this May-July period,the ACCC alleges that for about 70 per cent of cancelled flights,Qantas either continued to sell tickets for the flight on its website for two days or more,or delayed informing existing ticket holders that their flight was cancelled for two days or more,or both.
The regulator also claims that Qantas cancelled almost one in four flights in the period,with about 15,000 out of 66,000 domestic and international flights. Its legal proceedings relate to 10,000 of these cancelled flights.
It is the kind of behaviour,if substantiated,that would normally lead to intense calls for management heads to roll,or at the very least,a push by shareholders for executive pay to be adjusted to reflect the damage wreaked on the company’s brand.
Joyce is already packing his pot plants and framed snaps at Qantas’ head office,so whether the ACCC action has any repercussions on his pay and bonuses remains to be seen.
Let’s not forget,the public may have their views on Joyce,but he is universally loved by Qantas’ board and shareholders. The airline’s chairman,Richard Goyder,is arguably the No.1 ticket holder of the Joyce fan club.
But the ACCC’s allegations further tarnish Joyce’s tenure at Qantas and are an assault on his credibility.
This isn’t just an issue of an airline misleading its customers by selling tickets for ghost flights. The allegations undermine Joyce’s repeated claims that bad weather,staff sickness and poor airport support were responsible for delayed flights and cancellations.
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ACCC chair Gina Cass Gottlieb has said the service disruptions were due to “reasons that were within its[Qantas’] control,such as network optimisation including in response to shifts in consumer demand,route withdrawals or retention of take-off and landing slots at certain airports”.
For its part,Qantas has had little comeback to the allegations,other than the stock standard line that it’s taking them seriously. The action taken by the ACCC coincided with Qantas’ decision to remove the expiry date on COVID travel credits that were due to run out at the end of this year.
“We have a longstanding approach to managing cancellations for flights,with a focus on providing customers with rebooking options or refunds. It’s a process that is consistent with common practice at many other airlines,” the airline said.
“It’s important to note that the period examined by the ACCC between May and July 2022 was a time of unprecedented upheaval for the entire airline industry.
“All airlines were experiencing well-publicised issues from a very challenging restart,with ongoing border uncertainty,industry-wide staff shortages and fleet availability causing a lot of disruption.”
What’s less clear for now is whether Qantas is looking to explain away its alleged actions as a system snafu,which occurred due to post-COVID industry chaos.
But even if that is the case,Qantas’ customers will feel they have been betrayed by the flying kangaroo.