Jetstar faces class action over Covid-19 flight cancellations

A class action has been filed against Jetstar, seeking refunds and compensation for customers whose payments were “unlawfully retained” during the global pandemic. Plaintiff firm Echo Law has lodged proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia on behalf of “hundreds of thousands” of Jetstar customers whose flights were cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the action alleging that the airline failed to refund customers’ payments for those flights, despite being legally obliged to do so. The claim was served upon Jetstar on Wednesday morning, 21 August. Echo Law partner Andrew Paull said: “Jetstar promotes itself as a values-driven, low fare airline committed to helping ‘more people fly, more often’, yet it’s a highly profitable part of the Qantas Group, and when COVID caused widespread flight cancellations it put those profits ahead of its customers’ interests. “Jetstar customers were pushed into holding hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted travel credits, even though this wasn’t what those customers had agreed to as part of the airline’s terms and conditions. The right thing for Jetstar to do when it cancelled all those flights was to return its customers’ money without delay.” The claim alleges, among other things, that the pandemic-inspired travel restrictions “frustrated” Jetstar travel contracts, causing these contracts to be automatically terminated and giving customers a right to automatically recover money paid under those contracts.<br/>