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Qantas “senior managers” knew that cancelled flights were not being immediately removed from sale by its IT systems, new court documents related to the ‘ghost flight’ scandal have revealed.
The statement of agreed facts and admissions – signed off by both the ACCC and Qantas – also discloses that staff at the Flying Kangaroo were, in fact, aware customers were booking those services and that passengers weren’t notified immediately of the error.
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However, the agreement between the pair crucially concedes that “no single person knew” of the various problems that allowed cancelled flights to be sold to thousands.
The new details have emerged after Qantas in May agreed a $120 million deal with the ACCC to avoid a full court case into claims it sold tickets to services it had already cancelled; the deal also saw the competition watchdog drop claims Qantas deliberately misled consumers.
The so-called “ghost flight” claims are thought to have led to the early exit of Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who left shortly after the accusations emerged.
In a Federal Court filing, the Flying Kangaroo’s cancellations process was laid out during the period from 21 May 2021 until 26 August 2023 where it advertised tickets for thousands of flights it had already cancelled.
“During the Relevant Period, Qantas’ operating and scheduling systems did not always ensure that cancelled flights were promptly removed from sale, or that consumers were notified of the cancellation of their flight promptly (and at least within 2 days of a cancellation decision),” the document read.
According to the statement, during the relevant period, after the Qantas network team decided to cancel a flight, the following steps were taken:
- A new flight schedule was uploaded into the IT system, which put batches of changes into a queue to be processed by the schedule distribution team.
- Qantas’ Amadeus Enhanced Re-accommodation system automatically allocated existing passengers on each cancelled flight to an alternative flight.
- A member of the schedule distribution team manually reviewed and signed off on re-accommodation.
- Flights were removed from the inventory, passengers re-booked, changes were communicated to ticketholders and travel agents, and customer “Manage Booking” pages were updated.
“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; and that 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 document read.
“As a result, Qantas was aware of the way in which its system operated in relation to the removal of cancelled flights from sale, and the notification of consumers regarding flight cancellations.”
According to the court filing, Qantas has since updated its systems and processes to speed up the cancellation process and ensure customers are notified quickly.
“Following the commencement of this proceeding, Qantas took steps to facilitate the flight cancellation process for any cancellation decisions being completed (and therefore the Manage Booking Page updated) within 48 hours,” the document read.
“Qantas has provided training regarding the new processes to relevant Qantas employees and developed a Business Continuity Plan to be deployed if technical issues occur with the Automated Closure Solution and a reversion to manual processing is necessary.”
Qantas began compensating affected passengers at the end of June this year.
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says:During COVID, I took quite the interest in what international flights Qantas was selling. It surprised me that they were all being sold as 787 operated flights given they only had 11 of those aircraft at the time and they would have required at least 1.5 times that number assuming the entire fleet was going to be airborne 24/7 with no allowance made for turnarounds etc. They knew full well what they were doing.