Advertisement

ACCC investigates complaints about airlines flying to Australia during Covid-19

<span>Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP</span>
Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Australia’s consumer watchdog is investigating international airlines flying into the country during the pandemic, amid allegations operators are cancelling economy passengers’ tickets in favour of business and first-class customers, as companies comply with a strict cap on overseas arrivals.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry comes after the opposition infrastructure and transport spokeswoman, Catherine King, wrote to the ACCC chair, Rod Sims, on Wednesday following the Guardian’s reports of allegedly “unethical” behaviour from some airlines.

Accusations include customers claiming airlines are repeatedly removing economy passengers, citing an overbooked flight, while still selling more expensive seats for the same service on their websites.

Australian families stranded in Lebanon for more than a month after their original flight was due to depart are among the travellers waiting for airlines to honour their economy tickets back home. Guardian Australia has been inundated with emails from those affected.

While airlines including Emirates and Qatar Airways have so far denied they are prioritising business and first-class passengers, the Guardian has heard a recording of a Qatar Airways employee telling a passenger their ticket from Edinburgh to Sydney was cancelled three days before departure in order to make space for a last-minute business-class booking on the flight.

The employee said they had been instructed that the “priority is for business-class passengers” on flights from Doha into Australia given the arrival caps.

Related: 'Very uncertain': passengers scramble for limited seats on flights to Australia

On Wednesday, Qatar Airways was only selling business-class tickets to Australia, with a one-way Doha-to-Sydney ticket priced at $8,400. The next economy ticket available was on 20 September, for $3,600 one way.

The passenger caps for Australian airports – designed to ease pressure on quarantine hotels for returning international travellers – were introduced then tightened in July and largely affect Australians returning after brief travel for compassionate reasons –with a valid Covid-19 exemption.

A federal transport department spokeswoman said that Sydney airport is limited to 350 international passenger arrivals a day while Perth’s cap is 75 a day.

Brisbane and Adelaide are each limited to 70 overseas passengers a day. Melbourne is not currently accepting international flights.

Last Friday, the national cabinet decided to extend the arrival caps until 24 October.

For Sydney airport, where there are between six and nine scheduled international arrivals most days and more on weekends, the daily arrival cap can allow as many as 60 passengers per flight and as few as 30, with last-minute cancellations or delays meaning capacities per flight can change with little notice.

On Wednesday, King wrote to Sims about Labor’s concern that Australians overseas are “having their economy-class tickets cancelled and are being pressured to purchase more expensive tickets to return home”.

“Understandably, this situation is causing much stress for those Australians who need to return home and are finding themselves unable to do so,” she said.

“I note that the ACCC does have power to enforce Australian consumer laws when tickets are purchased through the Australian website of an airline.”

King also told the Guardian the cap on arrivals, in place to ease pressure on hotel quarantine, “does not mean (Australians) should be facing unexpected price hikes and cancellations at short notice”.

“Cost should not be a barrier for Australians to get to safety. The government needs to take more responsibility in ensuring that Australians who need to return home are able to do so,” she said.

An ACCC spokesman confirmed to the Guardian it was “looking into the issues raised” by King. He said consumer protections would depend on methods of booking.

Since last week’s deadly explosion in Beirut, Wendy Mehreb is worried Lebanon will descend into civil war before her family’s Qatar Airways economy flights to Sydney are honoured.

After relocating to Lebanon so her son with severe autism could attend a specialist applied behavioural therapy school from 2019, the family had begun preparing to return to Sydney early in the pandemic after the school shut.

They booked flights for 6 July, giving them enough time to pack up their lives and organise a return to their Bardwell Park home.

However, Qatar Airways has since cancelled and rescheduled their tickets three times, with their current ticket rebooked to depart Beirut on 6 September.

Mehreb said isolation in Lebanon has been tough for her seven-year-old son, Roman, who has not been able to access his regular therapists since the outbreak began.

She said he has become “self-injurious” and violent towards family members since they became locked down in their village north of Beirut.

Related: Virgin Australia announces 3,000 job cuts and says there may be more

While they were not directly affected by last week’s blast, Mehreb said “people stuck here in Lebanon should be made a priority because the situation here is dire and people are afraid it’s the beginning of a war”.

“Surely they should be making exceptions for people with cases like ours, stuck in a volatile situation.”

Mehreb told the Guardian she was ready to abandon her Qatar Airways tickets but noted other airlines had been accused of similar behaviour. She said purchasing new tickets would mean the family would have to pay thousands for hotel quarantine – something they had been exempt from given how early on in the pandemic they bought their original tickets.

A Qatar Airways spokeswoman said passenger lists for flights to Australia are “continually assessed and based on a range of criteria, including compassionate and medical requests, connecting flights, booking class, party size”.

“Each passenger’s case is treated on an individual basis regardless of the cabin they have booked,” she said. While she acknowledged the situation of the Mehreb family, she did not respond to the Guardian’s question asking why they did not qualify as a compassionate request.

Qatar Airways did not respond to questions about the recording of their employee telling another Australian passenger they had been removed from their flight to prioritise a last-minute business-class booking.

A spokesman for Michael McCormack, the infrastructure and transport minister, told the Guardian “we encourage passengers to contact their airline or travel agent as soon as possible for information on any changes to their flights and other options available”.

Do you know more? Contact elias.visontay@theguardian.com