‘Almost $500m’ in Qantas Covid flight credits unclaimed

Qantas boss Alan Joyce reveals $500m value of unclaimed flight credits and defends the decision to deny Qatar Airways more flights to Australia.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce during a Senate hearing on Monday into the cost of living. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

The value of outstanding travel credits from flights cancelled by Qantas and Jetstar during the pandemic amounts to nearly half a billion dollars, with Alan Joyce also telling a parliamentary hearing it was unlikely that allowing Qatar more flights to Australia would have reduced airfares.

The Qantas boss told parliament’s cost-of-living committee on Monday that allowing Qatar Airways an extra 21 flights into the country a week could have discouraged other carriers from increasing their capacity.

“If Qatar had added that capacity, would Singapore have added its capacity? Would other carriers had added theirs?” Mr Joyce said. “We know they have now and they’ve added considerable capacity, which will bring airfares down.”

The government rejected the bid from Qatar Airways last month on grounds it was not in the “national interest”, with Mr Joyce saying Qatar had “plenty of opportunities to add capacity” in other ways – including by upgrading the size of its aircraft.

But he suggested the bid would not have had a major impact on reducing airfares. He told the hearing “the capacity was already coming back and the short-term needs were going to be met anyway”, arguing a doubling of Qatar’s traffic rights would have simply distorted the market.

“So a lot of capacity is being added to the market and it’s going to be significant over the next year. And that will bring down airfares quite significantly,” he said.

Jetstar Group chief executive Steph Tully told the hearing the airline still had about $100m in outstanding travel credits as a result of flights being cancelled during the pandemic, which had yet to be claimed by customers.

The extra $100m is on top of the $370m in unclaimed travel credits for cancelled Qantas flights, with the committee getting no answer on how many credits were held by overseas customers.

“Jetstar’s is around $100m,” Ms Tully said. “About 50 per cent of that $100m is less than $100.”

Mr Joyce confirmed that from next week, Qantas would be “sending text messages to people to start reminding them (to redeem their credits)”

People with Qantas or Jetstar travel credits have until December 31 to make a flight booking using those credits or face losing them. No indication was given that the December deadline could be extended.

“Our focus right now – because you’ve got to have a line in the sand at some point – is to make sure Australians are using that credit or getting a refund by the end of the year,” Ms Tully said.

Mr Joyce refused to answer questions from MPs on whether he had discussed with the Prime Minister the decision to grant his son access to the chairman’s lounge or the bid from Qatar Airways to increase its flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

“I’m not going to comment on chairman’s club membership. I’ve got privacy issues where we will not comment on who’s in, who’s been offered it or why they’re there,” he said.

“I’ve said any conversation I’ve had with the Prime Minister or the minister are never divulged. I’ve kept that for all seven prime ministers.”

Mr Joyce blamed weather and air traffic control shortages for the 8.5 per cent of flights cancelled this year. This is compared to a rate of 2.8 per cent for Rex Airlines.