Qantas to pay US$66 million fine after ‘ghost flights’ scandal
SYDNEY: Australian airline Qantas agreed to pay a US$66 million vivid on Monday (Would possibly well well also merely 6) after a bruising “ghost flights” scandal, following accusations it saved selling seats on lengthy-cancelled journeys.
The nation’s competition watchdog said Qantas “admitted that it misled patrons” by promoting seats on tens of thousands of flights, despite those flights being cancelled.
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Qantas could also fork out US$13 million in compensation to 86,000 travellers impacted by the cancellations and botched rescheduling.
“Qantas’ habits became egregious and unacceptable,” said Australian Competition and Client Price chairperson Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
“Many patrons can grasp made holiday, enterprise and hasten plans after booking on a phantom flight that had been cancelled.”
Qantas said that, in some instances, potentialities grasp been booked on flights that had been cancelled “two or more” days prior.
Qantas chief govt Vanessa Hudson said the airline “let down potentialities and fell immediate of our grasp standards”.
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“We know a quantity of our potentialities grasp been tormented by our failure to acquire cancellation notifications in a timely system and we’re sincerely sorry,” she said in an announcement.
The US$66 million vivid is arena to court docket approval.
Long-dubbed the “Spirit of Australia”, 103-yr-ragged nationwide carrier Qantas has been on a mission to restore its recognition.
It has confronted an particular particular person backlash stirred up by soaring model prices, claims of sloppy carrier and the sacking of 1,700 ground workers at some level of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qantas has beforehand defended selling seats on cancelled flights.
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It argued that in state of hunting for tickets for particular seats, potentialities purchase a “bundle of rights” and a promise the airline will “attain its simplest to acquire patrons where they must be on time”.
Qantas posted an annual income of US$1.1 billion last yr, capping a important financial rebound after the hasten turbulence of the Covid years.
Veteran chief govt Alan Joyce announced his early retirement amid a barrage of criticism in September last yr.
Source: Reuters