Sean Smith: Proposed aviation customer rights would prevent airlines taking passengers for a ride

Australian travellers could finally be about to get a fair go. The Albanese Government’s proposed aviation customer rights charter would eliminate an unhealthy power imbalance which sees Australia’s airlines taking many travellers for a ride. All too often, the big airlines act as if they’re doing their customers a favour by transporting them around the country, rather than treating them as the valued source of the cash that keeps the carriers in the air. And it’s only got worse since the pandemic. Poor service, flight cancellations and delays, lost luggage. No one can expect things to run seamlessly all the time. But paying customers deserve better treatment than they’re getting from airlines, including refunds or compensation when the travel doesn’t go to plan and better communication about why it didn’t. In Australia, however, too many passengers are left hanging when flights are cancelled or disrupted and they’re more likely to get a travel coupon for future travel, rather than a refund, for their inconvenience. As for trying to quickly contact someone at the airline’s help desks to lend a hand? Good luck. The charter was one of various recommendations from the Government’s White Paper on aviation in August, which found the sector sector was not providing the level of service customers were due or expected. Last year, one in every 27 domestic flights was cancelled and nearly one in three was delayed on arrival. Much to their frustration, affected customers often find it difficult to enforce their rights, and the airlines notoriously take too long to respond to their complaints or inquiries. And as so often happens with such bodies, the Airline Customer Advocate — the industry organisation set up by the airlines themselves to handle unresolved complaints — has proven ineffective. Forcing time limits on the airlines and airports to resolve complaints, together with the appointment of a new Aviation Industry Ombudsman, will give better help to aggrieved customers. It is the least they deserve. Importantly, the charter will also dictate new standards in how airlines deal with travellers with disabilities, who still struggle with inaccessible facilities and services. The white paper cited accounts of “unhelpful practices and systems” at airlines, including denial or lack of access to pre-flight support services, extended and unreasonable wait times, discrimination and refusal to carry people who relied on assistance animals. The horror stories included one passenger with spinal cord damage and nerve pain being disembarked and left without a wheelchair in an aero-bridge for more than an hour, demands that additional fares be purchased for guide dogs, and a traveller with an intellectual disability being removed from a flight on the grounds of intoxication because of the way he spoke.