Regulators seek big fine for Qantas over tickets

STORY: Qantas could face a massive fine for selling tickets on flights that had been cancelled.

Australia’s competition regulator said Friday (September 1) that it was seeking penalties running into “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

The watchdog said a day earlier that Qantas broke the law last year when it sold tickets for over 8,000 flights which it knew had been cancelled.

The airline said it would review the allegations and respond in court.

It said the period in question – May to July 2022 – was a period of “unprecedented upheaval” for the whole air travel industry.

But regulators say the penalty should be big enough to deter such conduct.

Under Australian law it could reach 10% of the firm’s annual turnover.

Since Qantas revenue totalled around $12.8 billion over the year to the end June, that means a sizeable fine is possible.

The regulator said it would seek more than twice the $81 million penalty imposed on Volkswagen in 2019 over consumer law violations.

Shares in the airline closed down around 1.5% on Friday following the comments.