Coalition accuses Qantas of ‘cherrypicking’ data in Senate inquiry into pay-on-delay scheme for customers

The Coalition and consumer groups have accused Qantas of cherrypicking data to invert the conclusion of a study when the airline argued against laws to compensate delayed passengers. On Monday the Qantas domestic CE, Markus Svensson, appeared before a Senate committee hearing into the Coalition’s proposed “pay-on-delay” bill, which seeks to adopt an Australian version of the scheme in place in the European Union. Qantas and Virgin Australia have long been opposed to it, and repeated their concerns at Monday’s hearing that it would not help reduce delays and cancellations and would instead inflate operating costs, which airlines would ultimately bake into higher air fares. Svensson repeatedly referred to a 2020 EU-commissioned review into the efficacy of its compensation scheme, which he told the committee “showed that clearly the scheme led to the cost being passed to the consumer, which is not a good outcome”. He told the Senate that he had experienced the scheme as a consumer when living in Europe for three years, and said: “I have nothing good to say about it. “I think a mandatory scheme or compensation scheme does not improve customer protection. I also know from all the studies that the EU’s done that it increases the cost. It hasn’t improved in terms of cancellations and delays.” But the 2020 review he referred to, which examined the effects the EU’s scheme between 2011 and 2018, concluded that the laws had resulted in a proportional reduction of delays that were within an airline’s control. <br/>