Over the course of the pandemic, I have generally been fairly forgiving of airlines. When one of them cancelled my regional NSW flight and moved me to a completely different day, I didn’t kick up a fuss. “Things are hard in the tourism industry and everyone’s doing their best” is what I thought, as I sat on hold waiting to find out what other options were available.
Anyone who’s been flying regularly over the past couple of years will know that an airline’s schedule has never been as up in the air. Almost every day, there are planes that don’t take off, with passengers shifted to alternative flights. A lot of the time, this has minimal disruption – a Melbourne to Sydney flight that’s 30 minutes later is manageable for most travellers. But, as international travel regains its popularity, the potential for more serious inconvenience looms large.
Remember the stories you would hear about someone missing their best friend’s wedding because of a flight cancellation? Or a delay leading to a missed connection that ruins a family holiday? These anecdotes will soon be back, and I wonder if we’ll have the patience for them.
If you’ve ever had an international flight cancelled or severely delayed, you’ll know how annoying it can be. But what makes it even more frustrating is when you’re offered no compensation. If you are a few minutes late to check in, the airline might make you buy a whole new ticket. If the plane is two hours late taking off, the airline will just shrug its shoulders. Apparently the fine print in the terms and conditions only guarantees the carrier will get you from A to B, not what time (or even day) it’ll do it!
This is excusable for events outside anyone’s control, like bad weather. But airlines need to take responsibility when a delay or a cancellation is their fault. Unfortunately, there is no specific legal requirement for Australian airlines to do this, putting us behind much of the world. As the aviation industry gets back off the ground, it would be a good time for lawmakers to address this issue, to give the travelling public more confidence.
The European Union is the clear leader in this space, with a law establishing common rules for compensation since 2005. If your flight is delayed by more than three hours, you will be eligible for a set amount of money, depending on the length of the delay and the distance of the flight. It ranges from 250 euros for a flight of less than 1500 kilometres that’s delayed for more than three hours, to 600 euros for a flight of more than 3500 kilometres that’s delayed by more than four hours.
Citizens of any country are eligible for the EU law, which applies to both flights that depart from a European country, and those operated by a European airline (which includes the United Kingdom, which implemented an identical law after Brexit for continuity).
This means that, even as an Australian, you would be entitled to 600 euros compensation if there was a four-hour delay on a British Airways flight from Sydney to London (a UK/EU carrier), or a Qantas flight from London to Sydney (departing from a UK/EU country) – but not on a Qantas flight from Sydney to London (neither a UK/EU carrier, nor departing from a UK/EU country).
In New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Act entitles passengers with delayed or cancelled flights (that are the airline’s fault) to compensation, although the exact amount is a little murky. The law states that it’s either “the amount of damage proved to have been sustained as a result of the delay” or 10 times the cost of the ticket, whichever is lower.
What you and the airline consider to be “damage” may be different, and getting the compensation you expect may not be simple – but at least New Zealand has a law, unlike Australia.
Individual airlines here have their own policies on what they’ll offer when there’s a delay. Both Virgin Australia and Qantas will give passengers a meal voucher if the delay is more than two hours (for Jetstar, it’s more than three hours), and they’ll all cover accommodation for an overnight delay away from your home airport. But none of the airlines offer extra compensation for the inconvenience and other issues that may arise from not arriving on time.
Flights within Australia and with Australian carriers are covered by Australian Consumer Law, like any other product or service, and there are ways to pursue legal action for delayed and cancelled flights. Using consumer law to get a refund can be quite straightforward, but it’s much more complicated if you’re looking for compensation, and the average person wouldn’t bother to pursue that avenue (and they may not be successful anyway).
What we really need in Australia is a system similar to the EU’s, with a simple set of criteria for what constitutes an unreasonable delay, and a guaranteed amount of money a passenger is entitled to. Like in Europe, the cost may eventually be passed onto passengers through a small increase in fares, but it makes the aviation industry fairer and keeps the airlines accountable.
