Qantas, Australia’s national airline, said on Monday it had reached a deal with the country’s consumer watchdog to pay the equivalent of $79 million for selling thousands of tickets on flights it had already cancelled.
The airline said in a statement that the payments, totaling A$120 million, would resolve a lawsuit the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission brought against Qantas over the issue last year. The commission accused the airline of advertising and selling tickets for more than 8,000 canceled flights from May 2021 to July 2022.
The commission said Qantas knew the flights would never take off and that tickets remained available for an average of more than two weeks after the flights were cancelled. — in some cases, for up to 47 days.
Qantas said it expected to pay $20 million in compensation to more than 86,000 of its customers, as well as a $100 million fine, subject to court approval.
“We know that many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide timely cancellation notification, and we are sincerely sorry,” said the airline’s CEO, Vanessa Husdon.
“We have since updated our processes and are investing in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this does not happen again,” he said.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chairwoman of the consumer watchdog, said the agency was “pleased to have obtained these admissions from Qantas that it misled its customers, and its agreement that a very significant penalty is required as a result of this behavior.”
The airline has had a difficult few years. While it bills itself as “the spirit of Australia,” its customers there have complained about unreliable flights and high ticket prices. The airline has also been criticized for giving large salaries to its board of directors and former chief executive, after what a court called the illegal dismissals of 1,700 baggage handlers.
In the airline’s statement Monday, Hudson said the resolution of the lawsuit over the canceled flights “represents another important step forward as we work to restore confidence in the national airline.”