Flying is an essential service for many Australians. It connects regional communities, provides access to vital medical services, unites family and friends for important occasions and helps Australians explore more of the world.
But for far too long consumers have struggled to obtain satisfactory outcomes when flights don't go to plan. Even when a consumer has clear rights to refund or some other remedy, it is far too difficult to enforce these rights because airline and airport customer service and complaints handling has been very poor. There also has not been an effective external complaints body to drive improvements in airline or airport practices.
CHOICE welcomes plans to establish an Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme (Ombuds Scheme), but urges the Government to ensure we avoid the pitfalls from past attempts at airline complaints handling by establishing an ombuds scheme that is genuinely independent, effective, comprehensive, fair, free and transparent. To achieve this we recommend modelling the Ombuds Scheme on Australia's best examples of industry based dispute resolution: the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
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