Airlines still behaving badly with too many flights getting the chop

Only last month, transport minister Catherine King said that after consultation the federal government had a “particular eye on modernising the slot allocation framework and strengthening compliance measures to ensure that slots are not being misused by airlines.”

And Culbert is the bloke that educated the travelling public to the practice of airlines’ slot hoarding (and the 80/20 rule) – which allows airlines to retain the use of airport slots even if one in five are not being used.

Culbert is adamant this allows incumbent airlines too much latitude because they need to only use 80 per cent of their slots to keep them all.

“In what industry is it deemed acceptable to cancel up to 1 in 5 services? The 80/20 rule incentivises slot hoarding, rather penalising it, and so long as the 80/20 rule remains in place, slot hoarding will continue, and passengers will pay the price,” Culbert said in his speech to the Australian Airports Association on Wednesday.

Over allocation of the slots to Australia’s two main domestic aviation companies, limits new airline entrants from using them, which in turn is damaging for competition.

Loading

And then there are the other sets of statistics that Culbert doesn’t mention but are a constant reminder of the failures in customer service and the undercooked mechanisms available to customers to seek redress.

Where other industries like banks and telecommunications have a dedicated ombudsman to deal with customer complaints, the airlines have the not so well-known Airline Customer Advocate, which is funded by the airlines themselves and has been widely criticised by consumer groups as being unfit for purpose.

In 2021, the free service was issued a shonky award by CHOICE which accused it of functioning as a glorified post box instead of an emboldened dispute resolution service.

This week, after a long delay, the Airline Customer Advocate released its 2022 scorecard for the airlines.

Unsurprisingly, it amounted to a fail. But in fairness it did cover that diabolical period when the post-COVID service ramp-up was underway and the airlines were struggling to cope with excess demand and staff shortages.

But the findings make for a reasonable argument that the aviation industry needs a proper ombudsman. Between grumbling airports and the behaviour of the airlines, passengers need someone on their side.

In Europe, passengers are by law able to seek compensation for long delays and flight cancellations – which Qantas has argued should not be introduced in Australia.

While the airlines will point out that their on time performance has improved significantly since 2022, poor service levels remain a touchy subject for passengers. And just how committed Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin are to delivering a good service to their customers will soon be tested as the Christmas holiday season rolls in.