By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY–Australian carrier Qantas Airways said that it kept selling tickets for flights that it knew had been canceled because of shortcomings in its systems rather than for financial gain.
Qantas, which faces legal action over the issue following allegations by Australia’s consumer watchdog, on Monday said that its systems had been unable to cope with the volume of changes it made to flight schedules amid shortages of aircraft and staff.
It said it had delayed telling customers their flights had been canceled to avoid putting pressure on its call centers and to arrange putting passengers onto other flights. Its systems did not automatically remove canceled flights from sale while this was happening, it added.
“All customers on cancelled flights were offered an alternative flight or refund. There was no ‘fee for no service,'” Qantas said.
It denied that it had delayed acknowledging cancellations in order to protect takeoff and landing slots at airports.
In August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged that Qantas kept selling tickets for more than 8,000 flights for an average of more than two weeks after cancellation. In some cases the delay was 47 days, the ACCC alleged.
The carrier failed to notify ticket-holders for more than 10,000 flights of cancellations for an average of 18 days, or as long as 48 days, the ACCC said.
Write to Stuart Condie at [email protected]
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