Australia’s national carrier Qantas announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement with the country’s consumer watchdog to pay the equivalent of $79 million for thousands of previously canceled tickets.
The airline said in a statement: statement The payment, totaling A$120 million, will resolve a lawsuit brought against Qantas last year by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the issue. The commission accused the airline of advertising and selling tickets for more than 8,000 canceled flights between May 2021 and July 2022.
The commission said Qantas knew that flights would not take off and that tickets were available on average for more than two weeks after a flight was cancelled. — In some cases, it can last as long as 47 days.
Qantas said it would pay more than 86,000 customers A$20 million in compensation and a $100 million fine, subject to court approval.
“We know that many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide timely notice of cancellation, and we sincerely apologize,” said Vanessa Hudson, the airline’s chief executive officer. ” he said.
“Since then, we have updated our processes and invested in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this never happens again,” she said.
Gina Kath-Gottlieb, chair of the consumer watchdog group, said the consumer watchdog group “agrees that Qantas has admitted that it misled its customers and that very significant penalties are necessary as a result of this conduct. I’m glad I was able to get it.”
The airline has had a rocky past few years. The company promotes itself as the “Spirit of Australia” but local customers complain of unreliable flights and high ticket prices. The company is also accused of awarding large salaries to its board and former chief executive following what a court called the illegal firing of 1,700 baggage handlers.
In the airline’s statement on Monday, Hudson said the resolution of the lawsuit over the canceled flights “represents another important step forward in our efforts to restore confidence in our national carrier.”