Australia’s federal court has formally ordered Qantas to pay A$100 million ($67.3 million) in penalties for advertising and selling tickets on flights that it eventually decided to cancel.
The court order, announced 8 October, comes about five months after Qantas and Australia’s competition watchdog – which had sued the airline over its “misleading” conduct – agreed to settle with a A$100 million civil penalty imposed.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Qantas had “benefitted” from misleading its customers. The commission says Qantas’ senior managers - who were responsible for the airline’s systems and operations were “aware” that the cancelled flights were not removed from sale, but did not act on it.
Qantas had also admitted that existing ticketholders for these cancelled flights were not immediately notified or updated.
Adds the ACCC: “Qantas admitted that it benefited from the conduct by obtaining revenue from consumers who may have chosen a cheaper Qantas flight or a flight with another carrier had they known their chosen flight had already been cancelled.”
The so-called ‘ghost flights’ controversy happened between May 2021 and July 2022, with the ACCC mounting its lawsuit in August 2023. In total, the commission says Qantas advertised tickets for over 8,000 cancelled flights.
Qantas originally rebutted the claims, stating that the ACCC’s lawsuit ignored “the realities” of the airline sector, particularly during the challenging coronavirus pandemic. However, by May this year, it decided to settle for the A$100 million penalty, in addition to A$20 million in restitution for 86,000 passengers who bought tickets on the cancelled flights.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb calls the penalties “substantial”, adding that it serves as a deterrent to other companies.
She adds: “A large, well-resourced company like Qantas should have had strong operating and compliance programs in place that would have prevented these issues from arising.”
The ACCC notes that Qantas has since “made changes” to it operating and scheduling programmes so prevent such incident from occurring again.
