It’s fantastic news for travelers and the travel industry that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will once again be keeping an eye on domestic airlines, since this will help to improve flight reliability and efficiency.
The Federal Government’s decision is welcomed by the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA), considering the crucial significance of the ACCC’s quarterly reports.
The ATIA has advocated for the reinstatement of ACCC oversight of domestic aviation on numerous occasions, most recently at recent roundtables for the Aviation White Paper process and in submissions to the Inquiry into Tourism and International Education Sectors and the Bilateral Air Rights Inquiry.
“Quarterly reporting by the ACCC is critically important to tracking the overall health of Australia’s domestic aviation sector, especially while Travel’s recovery is still in progress and capacity is still lacking,” ATIA CEO Dean Long said. We seen the advantages of this monitoring during COVID when the ACCC pointed out problems with the selling of tickets for canceled flights, among other things.
“This reporting opens up crucial data that enables consumers and industry stakeholders to get timely and pertinent information, especially on capacity and costs. The improvements to include customer complaints will increase trust.
“When the monitoring program started during COVID, we saw that this reporting provided important insight into the general state of the domestic aviation industry to support Australia’s overall economic growth.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for change, and we are pleased that the Federal Government has acted in accordance with ATIA’s submissions to the Tourism and International Education Sectors Inquiry and the Bilateral Air Rights Inquiry,” the statement reads.
Source- Travel daily