Foreign airlines are trouncing Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin on measures of customer satisfaction, new government-commissioned figures show, despite the local industry’s efforts to rebuild trust after COVID-19.
Satisfaction with the performance of Virgin Australia, Qantas, Jetstar and QantasLink by Australians is almost 15 percentage points (14.7) lower than satisfaction when flying on international airlines for international flights, comprehensive polling reveals.
The survey of Australians’ air travel behaviour, experience and attitudes – captured after the COVID crisis but before the fuel price shocks driven by the war with Iran – paints a picture of customers who are resigned to poor service and are not even seeking remedies when disruptions caused by airlines occur.
The findings are contained in one of the first systematic surveys of passengers’ views before the Albanese government prepares to roll out a much-touted Aviation Consumer Ombuds Scheme alongside a purpose-built Aviation Consumer Protection Authority.
More than half of the 4000 Australians polled (55 per cent) experienced a flight disruption, ranging from 15 minutes to three hours, in the year to August 2025. Of those who experienced a disruption, a whopping 95 per cent did not complain, the survey shows, suggesting a resigned flying public.
“It’s alarming that 19 out of 20 Australians don’t complain even when an airline treats them unfairly,” said Adam Glezer from Consumer Champion, a consumer advocate.
“We’ve been conditioned by this ‘she’ll be right’ mindset, and it stops people from demanding the rights they’re owed.”
Nearly half of those polled, 48 per cent, said the complaint would make no difference, while 52 per cent also said they didn’t have the time or energy to pursue the complaint, in a survey allowing multiple answers.
Other major factors cited by respondents were the issue of consumers receiving confusing and superficial responses, and uncertainty about starting the process. Of the fraction of people who did lodge a complaint, 31 per cent never got an initial response, and 42 per cent said their complaint has never been resolved.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has invested significant time rehabilitating the Qantas brand and improving consumer and employee trust scores since taking over as CEO from Alan Joyce in 2023, after the airline suffered a backlash from politicians, the public, and investors.
Qantas referred the masthead to Airlines 4 ANZ, a peak body.
A4ANZ CEO Stephen Beckett said: “We acknowledge when disruption occurs; however, it’s not a massive and wholesale problem.”
He noted that individual airlines are showing stronger measures of brand loyalty, performance and operations – and they continue to improve. “There are periods such as the post-COVID phase which created disruptions; but we’re on the other side of that now,” he said.
Virgin said its customer satisfaction continued to strengthen, and more than 80 per cent of calls to its Guest Contact Centre were answered within 30 seconds.
Transport Minister Catherine King, whose office is leading the reform, said that at the moment, individual airlines and airports manage their own processes and complaints “but it is clear that system is not working”.
King introduced new consumer protection legislation in April “to ensure there are clear and easy to follow processes when things go wrong”. King said the “legislation is an important first step to ensure the travelling public get a better deal”.
A separate review commissioned by the interim Aviation Consumer Ombuds person noted that often, airline and airport complaints become the victim of “complaint capture” with many customer issues not recorded and not addressed by airlines or airports.
Airlines (and airports) often have no clear escalation processes for unhappy customers, either, the report said. Often, a customer escalating an issue with an airline will see the same employee respond to the same complaint.
“Some airlines”, the review found, were likely to offer remedies to the disgruntled passengers who were “perceived to be of a higher value such as frequent travellers or higher ticket prices”.
When complaints were made, the survey found flight delays, cancellations or changed itineraries account for 46 per cent of customer complaints, followed by delayed, lost or damaged baggage at 22 per cent.
Poor customer service accounted for 19 per cent of issues while poor in-flight service, such as uncomfortable seating or bad food, spurred 10 per cent of complaints.
Less than a third of those polled (31 per cent) were satisfied with how disruptions were handled.
Underscoring the hazy knowledge of travellers’ rights, only one fifth of people knew even a “moderate amount” or more about their rights.
The BETA survey on customer satisfaction, released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, is part of a government effort, begun with the Aviation White Paper, to make customer rights understandable.
The White Paper, which was released amid public outrage over Qantas’ “ghost flights” and mass cancellations, recommended the creation of the Aviation Consumer Ombuds Scheme along with an Aviation Consumer Rights Charter “to hold the aviation sector accountable for delivering on its obligations to customers.”
The planned reforms will apply a set of legally enforceable standards to the industry and provide a pathway for disgruntled consumers to make their case.
While the remedies focus on vouchers and obligations to airlines for re-booking customers, they won’t include a compensation scheme that fines airlines when they provide poor service for events within their control.
A revealing statistic sheds some light on low levels of satisfaction – the most common way (34 per cent) for travellers to learn of their disruption was on an “airport sign” highlighting the last-minute nature of informing passengers.
After airport signs, airport loudspeakers account for 31 per cent of travellers learning about disruptions. SMS or email from the airline (28 per cent), and the airline app (17 per cent), and pilot announcement (16 per cent).
But seven per cent of those polled said they weren’t informed of the disruption, and two per cent said other passengers informed them.
Glezer said: “It’s embarrassing how weak Australia’s consumer protections are compared with what customers overseas enjoy.”
“And let’s be honest: the industry here is a duopoly where profits and shareholders come first and customers barely register.”
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Chris Zappone is a senior reporter covering aviation and business. He is former digital foreign editor.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
