WE’RE NOT SHONKY SAYS QANTAS IN DIG AT CHOICE written by Adam Thorn | November 3, 2022

Qantas has accused consumer group Choice of using out-of-date data to hand the business a joke ‘Shonky’ award for poor performance.

It comes after the airline this year faced a string of problems, including huge delays at Easter, hours-long call wait times, and even a revelation that the cabin crew of a Qantas A330 were made to sleep across seats in economy.

At its lowest point in April, less than half of its departures from both Sydney and Melbourne airports were on time, significantly lower than all its major rivals.

On Thursday, Choice’s CEO, Alan Kirkland, said the airline was so bad it appeared to “have gone deliberately out of its way to win a Shonky”.

Qantas said in response that it had been “very transparent” with its data, but that Choice’s figures were “just wrong”.

“We’ve beaten Virgin for on-time flights eight out of the past 12 months, and in some months that’s been by a significant margin,” it said in a statement.

“Our call wait times are less than half what Choice is claiming.

“Our customers have redeemed more than $1 billion in COVID-related flight credits. The conditions for these are the same or better than they were pre-COVID and we’re actively encouraging our customers to use them.

“No one is disputing the fact we had issues earlier this year, and we apologised for that, but it’s disappointing that Choice failed to acknowledge the impact that COVID and border closures have had on the entire aviation industry.”

In October, Australian Aviation reported how Qantas’ performance has improved, with the airline now having overtaken Virgin to perform better on delays.

New official figures backed up recent claims by the national carrier and showed that 69 per cent of its flights by Qantas and QantasLink arrived on time in September, compared to 68 per cent for Virgin and VARA combined.

Qantas said its improvement was due to both keeping capacity in reserve for difficult periods and investing in training and recruiting staff.

In total, it said it would invest $200 million for the remainder of the financial year to roster additional crew, train new recruits and pay for overtime in contact centres.

It also said its new “conservative” approach to scheduling means 20 per cent of its available seats will be left in reserve.