A spokesperson for Virgin Australia said the airline “welcomed opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the external complaint-handling process for airline customers”.
“We will work constructively with government if it is thought that improvements beyond those we have already supported are necessary. We will be keen to ensure unnecessary additional costs are not baked into the system,” the spokesperson said.
The Airline Customer Advocate, which is funded by the airlines, had a 100 per cent increase in complaints in 2022 and solved fewer than half of them. Unlike the ACA, an ombudsman scheme would be independent and enforce resolutions.
Consumer advocates such as CHOICE and the ACCC have been pushing for an independent ombudsman scheme that would bind all airlines in Australia to act in the event of a disruption and simplify the way customers can exercise consumer guarantees.
The airlines have previously argued that Australian consumer law already protects the rights of Australian travellers and warned against other compensation policies – including the EU’s mandated compensation – do not actually fix the number of delays or flight cancellations and push up the cost of airfares.
Regardless of the fare class, all consumers are protected by Australian consumer law. That means airlines are bound to abide by consumer guarantee obligations and cannot contravene these entitlements within their policies.
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Under consumer law, customers must be provided a service within a “reasonable time”.
A consumer law breach in the event of a flight cancellation depends on whether the airline caused the cancellation and how long it took to rebook the flight.
Often, travellers and airlines disagree on what constitutes a “reasonable” time for booking a new flight, and policies vary between carriers.
In their submissions to the aviation green paper, Virgin and Qantas highlighted the roles of airports, ground service providers and air traffic control in causing delays and cancellations.
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