The sharp increase reflects the difficulties that aviation experienced after borders reopened before the sector was prepared. The airlines saw a 150 per cent increase in passengers on the year prior,but insufficient resources and conditions to fly them.
“The increase is to be expected based on the increased volume of passenger numbers with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in Australia and internationally,” the ACA report said.
About half of domestic flights arrived late in 2022 and 6 per cent were cancelled.
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The ACA is a free service designed to assist passengers after they’ve been unable to resolve a complaint with an airline directly. Funded by participating airlines Qantas,Virgin Australia,Jetstar and Regional Express,it normally releases its annual report in the first half of the year.
It has long been criticised by consumer advocates as a glorified post box because it has no power to enact resolution outcomes on behalf of customers. Instead,the ACA can only contact the airline concerned and ask it to consider a complaint within a 21-day period.
“For the 1286 eligible complaints finalised in 2022,422 were resolved to the customer’s satisfaction,” the ACA report said. A draft version,first reported byThe Australian Financial Review in August,revealed a total of 6918 complaints,with some 4000 about Qantas.