Bombshell report reveals Qantas ‘senior managers knew’ ghost flights were being sold
Qantas management was aware the airline was selling tickets for flights that had already been cancelled, according to a report issued by the ACCC around the ghost flights saga.
Qantas’ new CEO Vanessa Hudson agreed to settle the ACCC claim earlier in the year, with the airline paying $120 million in damages.
In doing so, the airline admitted 86,597 customers were sold cancelled flights, totalling $170.9 million, with an average of 11 days between the sale of the flights and the airline notifying the traveller the flights had been cancelled.
The statement of agreed facts was issued by the ACCC, and is subject to approval by the Federal Court.
“Senior managers responsible for different aspects of Qantas’ systems and operations knew: That flights the subject of a cancellation decision were not immediately removed from sale; that some consumers could and did make bookings on flights after those flights had been the subject of a cancellation decision; that consumers who had made bookings on flights that were the subject of a cancellation decision were not notified of that decision immediately,” the ACCC wrote.
The management also knew “the Manage Booking Pages for flights that were the subject of a cancellation decision were not updated to reflect that decision promptly, although no single person knew all these matters.”
The ACCC acknowledged that Qantas had since automated this process so these errors cannot occur again.
Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline’s admission of guilt and payment of the fine was “another important step” in restoring customer confidence back in the airline.
“When flying resumed after the COVID shutdown, we recognise Qantas let down customers and fell short of our own standards. We know many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide cancellation notifications in a timely manner and we are sincerely sorry,” Hudson said.
“The return to travelling was already stressful for many and we did not deliver enough support for customers and did not have the technology and systems in place to support our people.
“We have since updated our processes and are investing in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
Who is CEO Vanessa Hudson kidding, ‘the airline’s admission of guilt and payment of the fine was “another important step” in restoring customer confidence back in the airline’.
If Qantas had not been kicked in the backside by the ACCC it would never have come to light. Instead of waiting for the ACCC to take action how about stepping up and stating ‘what we did was wrong’.
How about refunding the customers Qantas ripped off Vanessa? And apologising with free flights (rather than us paying for flights that did not exist) then and only then will you restore customer confidence because those many many customers Qantas ripped off have already moved on Vanessa – moved on to other airlines never to return.
User ID not verified.
No mention of compensation to passengers who suffered hurt and distress trying to navigate the many bomb proof walls intentionally built by Qantas management in order to resolve their conflict.
User ID not verified.
Vanessa I know you r doing your best now to restore a lot of greedy wrongs
But you were a big part of it all ?
Qantas knew all along it was getting huge money to defray loans ,interest etc and you were the bean counter
This part will continue to haunt qantas and Goyder who all fostered Joyce for personal reasons
Shame but good luck
User ID not verified.
Have your say