Qantas has faced court for its first hearing in action brought by the consumer watchdog over the flying kangaroo’s decision to sell thousands of tickets for cancelled flights.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is suing the airline in the Federal Court over allegations Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by continuing to sell thousands of tickets for flights that were cancelled.
The parties appeared before the court in Melbourne for a case management hearing on Wednesday, where upcoming dates were set.
They will return to the court on February 28 next year.
The ACCC’s barrister, Chris Caleo, QC, took aim at the airline’s defence during the brief hearting.
“If the initial remedy of seeking particulars proves to be ineffective, it may be necessary to raise with your honour on the next occasion aspects of the [defence] and in particular what the commission sees as a failure on the part of Qantas to respond directly to the key allegations of conduct,” Caleo said.
“It may well be that a request for particulars can address those matters, and we hope it can, but if that proves not to be the case then we may need to raise those matters with your honour on the next occasion.”
For Qantas, Robert Yezerski SC said the airline rejected the idea there was “any deficiency” in its defence.
“We think the matters that have been raised in the concise response are relatively clear,” Yezerski said.
Qantas has acknowledged letting down customers. But, in its defence, it said airlines could not guarantee specific flight times because of potential delays due to the nature of travel, including weather and operational issues.
“The ACCC contends that Qantas supplies carriage on ‘particular flights’. Qantas disputes this. The ‘service’ that Qantas supplies is not carriage on any ‘particular flight’ but rather a bundle of rights that includes alternative options to which consumers are entitled in respect of a cancelled flight,” it said in a key part of its defence filed last month.
The consumer watchdog alleged Qantas did not notify existing ticket holders for 10,000 cancelled flights for an average of 18 days, and up to 48 days, between May and July 2022.
A quarter of the airline’s flights were cancelled between May and July 2022, which accounted for about 15,000, the watchdog said.
The ACCC is seeking penalties, injunctions, declarations and costs.
Qantas will fight the allegations, saying the ACCC’s case ignored the realities of the aviation industry.
Impacted domestic travellers on 10 cancelled flights cited by the ACCC were offered same-day flights prior to, or within an hour after their scheduled departure times, Qantas said.
The airline also pointed to the 98 per cent of impacted international customers on the 10 examples being offered options of flights within a day of the scheduled departure.
It acknowledged tickets were left on sale for longer than 48 hours in some cases.
The Federal Court action comes amid a turbulent period for Qantas. Last Friday, shareholders rejected pay rises for the airline’s board due to the fallout from a range of issues, including a High Court defeat over illegal job outsourcing and vicious Senate grillings over Qantas’s role in the cost-of-living crisis.
-with AAP