Refund requests have topped the list of 1408 complaints lodged last year to the resolution scheme backed by the aviation industry, with Virgin copping the most heat and Qantas taking the longest to address issues.
The annual report of the Airline Customer Advocate (ACA) – funded by Qantas Airways, Virgin Australia and Regional Express (Rex) – said on Tuesday that less than 40 per cent of customer complaints against airlines were resolved last year.
Virgin Australia was the most complained about company in 2023, according to the industry’s dispute resolution scheme Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Virgin recorded the highest number of complaints in 2023, and took the crown for the most complaints about refunds, cancellations and flight delays, and it’s loyalty program.
Qantas’ budget arm Jetstar recorded the most complaints about fees or charges.
Qantas took an average of 97 days – compared with Virgin’s 16 and Rex’s 19 – to resolve customer issues, with the airline’s chief customer and digital officer, Catriona Larritt, saying the business has made a commitment to be “easier to deal with”.
“As at March 2024, we had cleared the backlog of existing customer complaints with Qantas, and, so far this year, we’ve finalised complaints through the Airline Customer Advocate in an average of 11 calendar days and resolved more than 82 per cent of the escalated complaints,” she said.
A complaint lodged with the ACA is considered eligible if the passenger has already attempted to resolve their issue directly with the airline and the issue occurred within 12 months. The average complaint finalisation timeframe averaged 37 days.
Virgin recorded 0.0114 complaints about flight delays and cancellations per 1000 passengers to Jetstar’s 0.0104 per 1000 passengers and Qantas’ 0.0032 per 1000 passengers.
A Virgin spokesperson said the carrier was always looking to improve the customer experience.
“Our operational performance has significantly improved since 2023, with current on-time performance and completion rates near or above pre-COVID levels. We resolved customer complaints through the ACA within 16 days on average in 2023, which is faster than any other airline and six times faster than our major competitor,” the spokesperson said.
The number of complaints to the ACA increased by 9 per cent on the year prior, in line with the increase in passenger numbers, which grew to 67.6 million.
The overall complaint resolution rate fell by 6 per cent to 37 per cent in 2023, compared with 43 per cent in 2022 and 40 per cent in 2021.
The dispute resolution scheme has faced criticism from consumer advocates, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and CHOICE, who have argued an independent ombudsman with the power to bind airlines to action would be more effective.
Minister for Transport Catherine King is preparing to unveil the department’s long awaited white paper into aviation policy in the coming weeks. She has said on many occasions over the past three years that the aviation industry could better protect consumer rights and is weighing up whether to install an ombudsman as part of the white paper.
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