Airlines that strategically cancel flights to block competition at Sydney airport could face civil penalties as the Albanese government moves to crack down on the Qantas-Virgin duopoly.
A new bill, to be introduced on Wednesday, will focus on Sydney airport’s controversial slot allocation system, which restricts the airport to 80 takeoffs and landings per hour – known as slots. An overnight curfew to minimise noise further limits flight numbers.
The bill will also introduce an extreme weather “recovery period” to temporarily allow extra flights to take off or land each hour for two hours. However, the total number of flights will not increase and planes still will not be allowed to take off or land during the curfew.
The minister will be handed new powers to force airlines to hand over information or documents relating to allegations of slot misuse.
Civil penalties and “enforcement tools” will also give regulators an avenue to address slot misuse.
The government did not provide extra details on how it will achieve these proposals ahead of the bill’s introduction to parliament.
The development comes four years after an independent review recommended flight cancellations should be independently audited to ensure an airline’s reasons for cancelling flights are valid.
The transport minister, Catherine King, said the changes would make Sydney airport and the new Western Sydney airport now under construction, more “efficient, resilient and competitive”. Western Sydney, which will not operate under a curfew system, is scheduled to open in 2026.
An audit of slots is already under way and due to report in November. A tender for a new slot manager was released in August.
Airlines, airports and industry leaders across aviation have accused larger airlines such as Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin of “slot hoarding” at Sydney airport for a number of years.
Slot hoarding is where airlines schedule more flights than they intend to run, before cancelling them in a strategic manner so as not to cancel any service more than 20% of the time so they retain the slot at the expense of a competitor (known as the 80:20 rule). Weather cancellations don’t count towards an airline’s limit.
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The 2021 Harris review found “anecdotes about misuse of slots are often raised”.
“The present system is not transparent, and so makes it hard for rumours to be run to earth,” it said.
Qantas Group and Virgin have consistently denied they misuse slots.
However, critics have pointed to long-term average cancellation data, which shows up to one in 10 flights between Sydney and Melbourne is cancelled.
Failed airline Bonza complained they had been shut out of Sydney airport because of slot hoarding by the duopoly.