The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is launching an enquiry as to whether airlines are prioritising premium passengers over economy ones, following the introduction of a cap on the number of people that carriers could bring to the country at the start of July .
The move, first reported by the Guardian, came after allegations that airlines are nixing economy passenger bookings in favour of higher paying business and first class passengers, effectively leaving those on a lower budget stranded.
Australia has imposed some of the toughest border controls globally, denying entry to non-citizens in March and banning its own passport holders from leaving the country. In a further draconian move, at the start of July, the Australian government imposed caps on passengers which limited the numbers that fly into individual airports to the low 100s daily.
The knock-on effect from this airport limits is that individual flights arrivals are now capped to as few as 30 passengers per plane.
When the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the cap on July 10, he said that the government’s intention was that “it will be more difficult” for Australians to return home, a stance which has drawn criticism following the recent Beirut explosion, with a number of Australians unable to exit the country.
Despite the probe it is unclear what, if anything, the ACCC investigation will lead to, as airlines don’t appear to be breaching any law or regulation.