Australians might finally get better treatment from our airlines

The recently released Aviation White Paper has been touted as a remedy for the well-publicised shortcomings of our airlines. Section three of the White Paper, “A better passenger experience”, sets out the pathway toward what is in effect a bill of rights for Australia’s air travellers.

An interim ombudsman will be appointed, charged with drafting a charter of rights for air travellers, and the government will “legislate to enshrine the powers of the ombudsperson by 2026.”

Compensation cancelled?Credit: Bloomberg

In the meantime, a federal election is looming, and the possibility of all manner of chicanery that our airlines and their advocates might use to delay and water down the charter of rights before parliament passes it into law. Any meaningful reforms could be a long time coming, but it shouldn’t be this complicated.

By far the most common complaints levelled at our airlines are to do with flight delays and cancellations. These are simple failings and the European Union’s regulation 261 provides a sensible solution. In the EU, if your flight is either cancelled or delayed for three hours or more you are entitled to compensation of between €250 ($408) and €600 ($979), depending on the length of the delay and the distance of the flight.

This legislation applies to all flights that operate within the EU, that depart from an EU country to a non-EU country or arrive from outside the EU.

Flights that are delayed for reasons outside an airline’s control, such as volcanic eruptions or by air traffic control, allow an airline to escape compensation claims, but according to Australian-based Adam Glezer, a consumer rights advocate for airline passengers, a technical difficulty does not. If a flight delay is caused by an engine problem, that’s down to the airline.

While we’re unlikely to see anything as robust as EU 261 in this country, the current white paper is a step in the right direction.

The appointment of ombudsmen to oversee our telecommunications and financial industries has empowered consumers, and an airline industry ombudsman is potentially a vast improvement over the previous complaints mechanism, the Airline Customer Advocate, a defanged tiger if ever there was.