Australian Consumer Law
The following provides an overview of your rights under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) where your flight is delayed or cancelled. Whilst all bookings and travel are subject to Airnorth’s Conditions of Carriage and other rules (Conditions), nothing in the Conditions affects your rights under the ACL. Please note that the below is not a statement of the only rights that may be available to you under the ACL (or any other law) and Airnorth recommends that you refer to the ACCC website or obtain independent legal advice for further information.
The ACL contains guarantees which provide consumers with a basic, guaranteed level of protection for services that they acquire, including
- guarantee as to reasonable time for supply
- guarantee as to fitness for a particular purpose
- guarantee as to due care and skill
You may be entitled to a remedy under the ACL if Airnorth does not meet any of the above guarantees for a service that Airnorth provides. If the breach of the consumer guarantees cannot be remedied or amounts to a major failure, you are entitled to a refund or other remedies under the ACL.
You may also be entitled to compensation for reasonably foreseeable losses caused by the failure.
A major failure occurs when a reasonable consumer would not have purchased the services had they known about the extent of the failure or the where the service is substantially unfit for purpose and cannot be fixed within a reasonable time.
Airnorth is committed to getting you to your destination on time, however sometimes bad weather, natural disasters, technical problems, operational and other issues can cause flight delays and cancellations. Your safety is always Airnorth’s main priority and while Airnorth will try its best to provide service in accordance with the estimated departure and arrival time of your flight, flight times are not guaranteed.
Airnorth recommends that you carefully consider your travel requirements when booking your flight and allow extra time in your travel plans in case there are unexpected changes to your flight, particularly if your travel is to attend a scheduled event or you have onward travel plans with a third party service provider. Travel insurance is recommended.
If a delay or cancellation occurs, Airnorth will provide you with assistance. Depending on the circumstances, this may include a refund and/or other compensation.
You may also be entitled under the ACL to a refund and/or compensation following a delay or cancellation if this constitutes a breach of the consumer guarantees.
Whether there has been a breach of the consumer guarantees depends on the circumstances. Airnorth considers a range of factors in determining whether its services were provided in accordance with the consumer guarantees, including but not limited to:
- the reason for the delay or cancellation, for example whether it was caused by Airnorth* or by someone or something else#;
- the length of any delay; and
- whether Airnorth remedied the delay or cancellation, for example by placing you on another flight within a reasonable time (which will depend on the circumstances and may not be the same each time you travel).
Airnorth is not required to provide you with a refund because you have changed your mind for any reason. However, you may be entitled to a refund in these circumstances depending upon your booking.
If you wish to claim a refund and/or other compensation, please contact Airnorth.
Email: reservations@airnorth.com.au
If you are entitled to a refund, the refund will be equal to the fare paid if no part of the ticket is used. If part of the ticket is used, the refund will be equal to the difference between the fare paid and the fare that would have been payable if booked for the travel taken.
*Delay or cancellation within Airnorth’s control includes, but is not limited to, engineering issues, Airnorth IT system outages, delayed delivery of baggage to the carousel due to resourcing issues, late cleaning/loading of catering to the aircraft, crew/staffing issues or any other circumstance which Airnorth can reasonably control. #Delay or cancellation outside Airnorth’s control includes, but is not limited to, weather events, air traffic control issues, industrial action by a third party, security issues or any other unusual and unforeseen circumstances which Airnorth cannot control and the consequences of which Airnorth could not have avoided.