New details have emerged about the extent of the ‘fake flights’ scandal involving Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia’s largest airline which sold non-existent flights between May 2022 and 2024.
Back in May, the airline agreed to pay $82 million in fines to thousands of travelers who were tricked into booking flights that did not exist or were canceled.
During this period, and especially in the months following the country’s reopening from the pandemic, former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was often seen interacting with top industry leaders, making headlines for his disruptive strategies to to attract customers who were still hesitant to travel after a fairly long lockdown.
In March 2022, Qantas announced the launch of its own NFTs with the promise that passengers who purchased these tokens would receive exclusive bonuses when flying with the airline.
A standard marketing strategy, you might say – until it became known that 71,000 of those flights were actually fake.
Although this scandal came to light six months ago, recent judicial revelations have shed light on the full extent of Qantas’ ‘misconduct’.
Court documents revealed this week show that senior managers were fully aware of this widespread scheme. This information was not disclosed when the lawsuit was first settled, leaving the true extent of the deception unclear until now.
The company sold those tickets to more than 87,000 travelers who were initially identified as the “affected parties,” but it has now been determined that nearly 1 million customers were also affected in a much broader sense.
As things stand now, this larger figure includes not only those who bought counterfeit tickets, but also the 884,000 passengers who were offered flights that Qantas knew would be cancelled, revealing the extent of the airline’s deceptive practices. according to a statement of agreed facts and admissions posted on the federal court’s official website.
“Qantas was aware of the way its system operated,” the filing said. “Consumers have suffered harm as a result of Qantas’ deviant behavior.”
The court ruled that the Australian airline had the option to immediately remove canceled flights from its platform, but chose not to do so.
Instead, they continued to sell tickets for these now “ghost flights” for about eleven days and took almost the same amount of time to inform customers of the real flight status.
‘Everyone feels pain from anger’ Recently appointed Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson told CNN in Dubai a few months ago. “It’s not just me; We also employ 25,000 people. Because we have failed not only our customers, but also our people.”
It’s hard not to wonder if other airlines around the world have employed similar tactics to hasten their financial recovery from the pandemic.
Although it is difficult to say for sure, travelers must now remain vigilant against potential abuse by airlines and take action by filing complaints if anything appears suspicious about their flights.
