17-07-2025
Qantas travellers' bush stranding highlights Australia's need for aviation consumer law
Sancia Walker almost made it home from her holiday last week.
But when her Qantas flight was grounded in Cloncurry due to a mechanical issue, she said she was left to find her own way home.
"They told us: 'No, you actually need to find your own accommodation for the night,'" Ms Walker said.
Ms Walker had to book a cabin overnight, instead of completing her trip from Townsville to Mount Isa.
She said it was a scramble for the roughly 30 passengers to find accommodation in the town of 3,000 people last Wednesday.
Ms Walker said ground staff promised Qantas would text or email each passenger overnight to let them know if a replacement plane or a bus would be provided the next day.
The following morning, Ms Walker said she had not heard from the airline, so she organised for a colleague in Mount Isa to make the three-hour round trip via car to pick her up.
She said Qantas contacted her three days after the flight, after she lodged a complaint, offering to reimburse her out-of-pocket costs for the accommodation and meals.
Ms Walker said the airline would not refund the cost of the flight but offered 5,000 frequent flyer points instead.
A return flight from Mount Isa to Townsville costs a minimum of 16,000 points.
Qantas said the airline had apologised to customers affected by the delay and would be reviewing the situation.
In a statement, they said a replacement aircraft was sent to Cloncurry the following day to help get customers on their way.
"We'll also reimburse them for related expenses," they said.
Ms Walker said she did not receive a text or email about a replacement flight, but saw the updated flight on her Qantas app when she opened it during her lift home.
Aviation expert Ian Douglas said the experience highlighted Australia's lack of aviation-specific consumer laws.
"If this had happened in Europe, Qantas would have been obliged by law to get the passengers where they were travelling, to accommodate them, feed them, care for them until that was done, and to have compensated them for the delay," he said.
Dr Douglas, who worked for Qantas for 25 years and lectures at the University of NSW, said general Australian consumer law was not well-suited to disrupted flights.
Each airline has its own policy regarding flight disruptions, but has limited legal obligations to get customers to their intended destination or refund fares.
Dr Douglas said operating airlines with Australia's relatively small population and large distances was difficult, but it was not a unique issue — pointing to countries like Finland and Canada that have similar demographics and geography.
"It's therefore more difficult to connect and service regularly, but that's not an excuse for leaving people stranded without resources," he said.
Dr Douglas said the federal government needed to step in for any meaningful change to happen.
"If there was a willingness to run the business differently, they could have done that already," he said.
He pointed to a 2024 Aviation White paper, where the Australian government announced an ombudsperson to set out national guidelines for the fair and appropriate treatment of customers by airlines and airports.
An interim ombudsperson has started drafting some rules, but so far has yet to see significant progress.
"It's taken two years to implement something fairly mediocre," Dr Douglas said.
"They've really been kicking the can down the road as far as not implementing the sorts of things that are considered basic rights in Europe and have been implemented in Canada and the US."
