Government asked to fast track passenger compensation scheme

The Coalition is putting pressure on the government to tackle the problem of flight delays with a compensation scheme for dudded customers.

The Coalition is moving to pressure the government to tackle the problem of flight delays by fast-tracking an airline passenger compensation scheme.

Although consumer rights are being reviewed as part of an aviation white paper due out later this year, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal colleague Dean Smith want action taken more quickly.

In an effort to speed up the process, Senators McKenzie and Smith will introduce a private bill to the Senate next week titled “pay on delay”.

The senators said the bill would clarify a passenger’s ticket is on a particular flight, to a particular destination at a particular time, and force airlines to honour their obligations to travellers.

“The Albanese Government has failed to ensure travelling Australians are not taken advantage of by our airlines and instead have spent the past 18 months running a protection racket for Qantas who represent more than 60 per cent of the Australian airline industry,” Senator McKenzie said.

“If the Minister (Catherine King) won’t act in the face of the egregious behaviour from Australian airlines on the behalf of travelling Australians, the Coalition will.”

Senator Bridget McKenzie. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

The bill would require majority support in the Senate and the House of Representatives to become law.

As yet, there were no details on what sort of delays would trigger compensation for passengers, or how much would be paid.

Ms King’s office declined to comment on Senator McKenzie’s bill, saying the issue was already being examined as part of the aviation white paper, and the Minister was on the record about the need for consumer rights to be strengthened.

Senator McKenzie previously sought and won Senate support for an inquiry into the decision to block more Qatar Airways’ flights.

Airlines remain opposed to a compensation scheme similar to that used overseas, where passengers were entitled to payments if they were subject to long delays within the control of carriers.

In Canada travellers could get up to $125 if their flight arrived between three and six hours late, and $250 if the flight was over six hours behind schedule.

The European Union required airlines to pay from $400 for delays of three hours or more for flights of 1500km, and $650 for longer distance flights.

Brazilian laws were even tougher on airlines, with passengers entitled to up to $1800 for delays and cancellations and $690 if they were denied boarding.

Qantas and Virgin Australia have warned such schemes would only push up airfares, and had not resulted in significant performance improvement in the countries where they operated.

Australian Airports Association chief executive James Goodwin was also sceptical about the effectiveness of such schemes.

“Customer dissatisfaction with airlines is continuing but it’s not clear if a compensation scheme will fix it,” Mr Goodwin said.

“Examining and improving underlying competition issues in the airline sector should be the priority as well as addressing the delays caused by the government run air traffic control provider.”

On-time performance data for December showed more than one in three flights was delayed during the month, and one in 20 flights was cancelled.

Weather was considered to be the main issue, and Airservices Australia admitted its own air traffic control shortages led to one in six flights being delayed on the ground.

In its latest monthly report, Airservices said its performance had improved in January, with one in eight ground delays attributed to air traffic control issues.