Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

Flight cancellations and delays are a problem. They impose costs on members of our society. The increasing frequency of cancellations and flight delays is something that does merit very close examination and potentially a public policy response.

What are the problems with flight cancellations and flight delays? First of all, there's the time that is wasted. There's time sitting on the tarmac. It is not just the time—sitting on the tarmac for 30 minutes or 60 minutes or spending 30 minutes or 60 minutes in the airport lounge or the airport terminal—quite often there's significant cost at the other end of the trip. You might have missed a meeting or a family gathering, which was the whole point of the trip. In the worst-case scenario people have had the inconvenience and expense of staying overnight in a place they didn't plan to en route to the place they originally had planned to. Then of course there are the other costs associated with the added uncertainty that we're now experiencing. Many people will now fly in advance—maybe the night before or hours in advance. These are all costs that are real but are difficult to measure.

What are the causes of flight cancellations and flight delays and their increasing frequency in our system? This is something that merits very close examination. As has been pointed out by a number of commentators, there is some data to suggest that it is worth examining whether or not slot hoarding is occurring. The Paris review was handed down two years ago. It was a very vigorous analysis of slot management across our airports. Its recommendations warrant very close examination, particularly in light of the behaviour of airlines since that time.

The committee of which I'm the chair—the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics—is undertaking a major review of competition. One of the sectors it's looking at is the aviation sector. We have already obtained evidence from Bonza and Virgin in relation to their participation in the airline sector. We will be seeking evidence from Qantas and Rex. We will also be seeking evidence from Sydney airport and other airports. Of course, we also have occurring concurrently with that the major aviation white paper.

So we do have a significant amount of policy work underway, but it is imperative that this work be undertaken carefully, because in order to design the best policy response to what we're seeing we need to make sure we fully understand the causes of what we are observing. Are we seeing increased flight cancellations due to slot hoarding? Are they due to an increased prevalence of mechanical faults due to underinvestment in maintenance? Are they due to the increased prevalence of bad weather? Are they due to systemwide issues?

We need to dig down into the data and fully understand what's going on in our network before we jump to any conclusions. This government, after a decade of inaction from the previous government, is now undertaking that work through my committee's examination of market concentration of the airlines but also of course, and even more importantly, through the white paper that is expected in 2024.

The monitoring by the ACCC, which has been very useful, was always due to end after three years. That was the deadline which the previous government set. What this government has done is say that, the monitoring having expired at the deadline that the previous government set, the Australian government's Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics will continue to publish reporting on domestic airfares on a monthly basis. So there will be transparency through that mechanism, and, if necessary, the ACCC can be given a further reference.

So what we have in place is the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics undertaking a competition inquiry which will no doubt feed into the broader aviation white paper, and we have reporting by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics. And, of course, this government at a more systemic level has substantially increased penalties for any company engaging in anticompetitive behaviour. So action is being taken on a problem that has been around for a long time.

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