Flight delayed or cancelled: what airlines owe you in Australia

Your flight is delayed by four hours. Or cancelled outright. The airline's app says "operational reasons" and the gate agent hands you a $10 meal voucher. You want to know whether you're entitled to more — a full refund, a replacement flight, or compensation for the costs you've now incurred. The answer depends on the facts, but the law may give you more than the airline first offers.

Quick answer

What caused the disruption, and whether your flight was domestic or international, matter most. There's currently no general legislated scheme of fixed delay payments in Australia. Your rights can come from several overlapping sources: your contract with the airline (the ticket conditions and the airline's compensation policy), the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), where you acquired the flight as a consumer under section 3 of the ACL, and, for most international flights, the Montreal Convention, which generally governs claims for damage caused by delay however they're framed. For flights within Australia, the Department of Infrastructure says your entitlements are generally determined by the airline's terms and conditions and the ACL.

Under the ACL, the ACCC frames delays and cancellations mainly under the reasonable time guarantee (section 62): you may be entitled to a replacement travel service or a refund, depending on the circumstances. Due care and skill (section 60) and fitness for a disclosed purpose or result (section 61) can also be relevant. For a delay you've already sat through, the most practical remedy is usually damages for reasonably foreseeable costs you incurred, such as meals or accommodation, if you can evidence them and took reasonable steps to limit them. If the failure is a major failure, you may cancel and get a refund for the part of the service not yet used, or keep the contract and claim compensation for the drop in value. Otherwise the airline gets the first reasonable opportunity to put things right — typically by rebooking you.

Raise the issue with the airline in writing before escalating. An airline's compensation policy sits on top of the consumer guarantees; it doesn't replace them.

What the law actually says

The ACL consumer guarantees for services

The ACCC's guidance on travel delays and cancellations says flights come with consumer guarantees, and that the reasonable-time guarantee is especially relevant to travel. It says the guarantees cover flights within Australia, travel services provided by international businesses that depart Australia, and travel to Australia booked through a travel provider's Australian website. They apply where you acquired the service as a consumer under section 3: the price paid or payable was $100,000 or less, or the service is of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use (either is enough). Check how section 3 applies to you.

Three guarantees are most relevant to flight disruptions:

• Section 62 — Supply within a reasonable time. Where the contract does not fix the time for supply, the service must be supplied within a reasonable time. The ACCC says conditions of carriage don't guarantee flight times, but airlines must still meet this guarantee. Whether it was met depends, the ACCC says, on the length of the delay, its cause, whether you were moved to a different service, and when that service is; if the replacement isn't within a reasonable time, the airline must give you the choice of a different replacement service or a refund. Because schedules aren't guaranteed, section 62 often does its real work on how quickly the airline gets you there after the disruption.
• Section 60 — Due care and skill. The airline must render the service with due care and skill. Operational issues within the airline's control — maintenance, crew rostering, scheduling — may support a claim that this guarantee wasn't met, depending on the evidence.
• Section 61 — Fitness for purpose or result. If you made known to the airline a particular purpose, or made known to it (or the agent who arranged the booking) the result you wanted — reaching a connection, attending a time-sensitive event, arriving by a specific time — the service must be reasonably fit for that purpose, and of a nature and quality that might reasonably be expected to achieve that result. Neither applies if the circumstances show you didn't rely, or it was unreasonable to rely, on the airline's skill or judgment. A private reason you never communicated is unlikely to be enough.

For the guarantees in sections 61 and 62, you can't take action if the failure happened only because of someone other than the airline (or its agents or employees), such as air traffic control, or a cause independent of human control after supply (section 267(1)(c)). The ACCC says that where a third party's actions prevent the airline supplying the service, your right to a refund or replacement will generally depend on your booking's terms and conditions.

When a guarantee is breached, the remedies for services sit in sections 267–270 of the ACL, with section 268 defining what makes a failure major. (Sections 259 to 263 deal with goods, which is a different framework.)

Major failure vs non-major failure for services

Under section 268 of the ACL, a failure to comply with a services guarantee is major if:

• A reasonable consumer, fully acquainted with the nature and extent of the failure, would not have acquired the service;
• The service is substantially unfit for a purpose for which services of that kind are commonly supplied, and can't easily and within a reasonable time be remedied;
• The service, and any product resulting from it, is unfit for a particular purpose you made known to the airline, and can't easily and within a reasonable time be remedied;
• The service is not of such a nature, or quality, state or condition, that it might reasonably be expected to achieve a result you made known to the airline, and can't easily and within a reasonable time be remedied; or
• The supply of the service creates an unsafe situation.

Two or more failures that aren't major on their own are together a major failure if a reasonable consumer fully acquainted with them, taken as a whole, wouldn't have acquired the service (section 268(2)).

A flight cancelled with no alternative offered for 24 hours may meet this threshold — but it depends on the cause of the cancellation, the alternatives the airline offered, and whether a time-critical purpose had been made known to it. A short delay of an hour or two, with the flight ultimately departing, is much less likely to.

For a major failure, you may cancel the contract and get a refund for the part of the service not yet used (section 269), or keep the contract and claim compensation for the drop in value.

For a non-major failure, you can require the airline to remedy the problem within a reasonable time — typically by rebooking you. If it refuses or doesn't, you can have it remedied elsewhere and recover the reasonable cost, or cancel the contract.

You can also claim damages for other reasonably foreseeable loss caused by the failure, such as meals, accommodation or alternative transport (section 267(4)), if you can evidence it, took reasonable steps to limit it, and don't claim the same loss twice. For international flights, the Montreal Convention's rules and limits apply to delay damages.

What "due care and skill" does not cover

Delays caused by genuinely unforeseeable external events — severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, a security incident — are less likely to show a failure of due care and skill, because the airline did not cause the problem through its own conduct. The closer the cause sits to something within the airline's operational control, the stronger your position.

Misleading conduct

If the airline made a representation about departure times, connections, or service features that was false or misleading, section 18 of the ACL may also be relevant. Continuing to sell seats on a timetable the airline knows it cannot operate, for example, may raise misleading-conduct issues depending on the facts. See our section 18 guide for more on how this works.

The Montreal Convention and domestic carrier liability

For international flights, the Montreal Convention makes the airline liable for damage caused by delay, unless it proves it took all measures that could reasonably be required to avoid the damage, or that it was impossible to take them. It compensates proven loss, not a fixed payment, and liability for delay is generally capped at 6,303 Special Drawing Rights per passenger (since 28 December 2024; an SDR is an International Monetary Fund unit of account). The Convention says any action for damages, however founded — under the Convention, in contract, in tort or otherwise — can only be brought subject to its conditions and limits, so the ACL generally can't be used to get around the cap. The right to damages is extinguished if court action isn't brought within two years.

For flights within Australia, the domestic carrier-liability legislation (the Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act 1959 (Cth) and its state counterparts) is mainly relevant to lost or damaged baggage; see our baggage guide. For a domestic delay, your rights generally come from the ACL and the airline's terms.

Proposed aviation consumer reforms

The Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 would set up an Aviation Consumer Protection Charter of minimum standards (expected to cover delays, cancellations, refunds and passenger assistance) and an Aviation Consumer Ombuds Scheme. As at October 2026 the Bill was before the Senate and isn't yet law, and the Charter is still being developed. Check the Department of Infrastructure's website for the current position.

When this applies (and when it doesn't)

The ACL consumer guarantees are likely to apply when:

• You acquired the flight as a consumer under section 3 — which an ordinary personal or business traveller normally will.
• The trip is one the ACCC's guidance covers (see above).
• The disruption was caused by something within the airline's operational control, not a genuine external event.

If a travel agent sold you the ticket, check who supplied what on your booking confirmation, receipt and terms. The ACCC says an agent may legally only need to pass on the remedy the airline offers.

The ACL is less likely to assist when:

• The delay was caused by severe weather, air traffic control, or another event genuinely outside the airline's control.
• You changed your mind about travelling or missed the flight for reasons unrelated to the service — the ACCC says you aren't entitled to a refund or replacement then.
• The airline offered a reasonable rectification (such as a timely rebooking) and you declined it.
• The ticket was bought from an overseas business that doesn't directly offer its services in Australia, or the whole transaction happened overseas. Even where the ACL applies, enforcement across borders may be difficult.

Your ticket conditions and the airline's compensation policy may give you additional rights. The ACCC says most airlines operating in Australia publish a compensation policy, and that your rights under it are on top of the consumer guarantees. The Department of Infrastructure says some airlines may offer meals, accommodation or transfers for significant delays, but this isn't always automatic, so ask. A term is void to the extent it purports to exclude, restrict or modify the consumer guarantees (section 64), though aviation liability laws can set their own limits. (For services not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, section 64A may let a contract limit liability to supplying the service again or its cost, unless you show reliance isn't fair or reasonable.)

What to do today

If you believe the airline owes you more than it has offered, here is a sequence that often helps:

1. Document everything at the airport. Note the scheduled and actual departure times, photograph the departure board, and keep every receipt for meals, accommodation or transport you had to pay for. Ask the airline for the reason for the delay in writing if you can, and ask what assistance is available.
2. Ask about a chargeback. If your flight was cancelled and you paid by card, ask your card issuer now whether a chargeback is available; if you used buy now pay later, ask the provider about its dispute process; both follow the card scheme's or provider's own time limits, not the ACL's.
3. Check your ticket conditions and the airline's compensation policy. Identify what the airline promises for a delay or cancellation. That is your contractual baseline before you reach the ACL.
4. Submit a formal complaint to the airline in writing. State the flight details, the nature of the disruption, why you believe the airline is responsible, and what you are seeking. Reference sections 60, 61 and/or 62 where they apply — where the contract doesn't fix the time (or for how long the airline takes to get you there after the disruption), section 62 may be the one to lead with.
5. Give a clear deadline. Request a response within 14 days (a practical default, not an ACL requirement) and say you will escalate without one. Keep boarding passes, booking confirmations, receipts and correspondence.

If you're not sure how to frame the written complaint, fairgo can generate a demand letter. The wizard identifies the relevant ACL sections and produces a letter you send under your own name.

What if the business refuses

If the airline rejects your complaint or doesn't respond within a reasonable time, you have several escalation options:

The Airline Customer Advocate (ACA). If your complaint is about Qantas, Jetstar or Virgin Australia and you've already complained to the airline, the ACA may help. It describes its service as free, applies eligibility criteria (including that the event happened within the last 12 months), and can't make decisions that bind the airline. Participating airlines can change, so check before lodging.

Your state or territory consumer body may help, for example by contacting the business or conciliating, if your complaint meets its criteria. Most expect you to have tried to resolve the matter with the business first, and eligibility rules vary by state and dispute type (in the ACT, for example, statutory conciliation applies only where the remedy you seek is worth $5,000 or less). These bodies don't make binding orders in ordinary consumer disputes and can't make the business settle. Contact details are at /agencies.

A tribunal or court with jurisdiction is the binding option if you need an enforceable outcome. In NSW, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and the NT, a tribunal (NCAT, VCAT, QCAT, ACAT or NTCAT) hears many consumer claims within its limits; in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, ordinary consumer claims go to the Magistrates Court. Jurisdiction depends on each forum's enabling legislation, the type of claim and the amount, so confirm the forum and its current thresholds on the official site before filing. For Convention or carrier-liability claims the jurisdictional position can be genuinely complex. You can usually run a claim without a lawyer, though some forums restrict legal representation (QCAT, for example, requires permission). Check current filing fees on the official site, and ask about fee exemptions, waivers or deferrals if cost is a concern. Our guide to choosing the right tribunal or court has more.

Setting out your next step clearly in a written demand letter can help move a stalled dispute.

Common mistakes

• Assuming there's a fixed payment for any delay. There's currently no general legislated scheme of fixed delay payments in Australia. Your entitlement depends on the specific failure, your losses, and whether the ACL, the Montreal Convention or your ticket conditions apply.
• Accepting a voucher without checking your full entitlement. A meal voucher may be what the airline's policy offers for a short delay, but for a longer disruption caused by its own operational failure your ACL rights may go further. Don't sign a waiver of further claims without understanding it.
• Conflating weather delays with airline-caused delays. Weather is generally outside the airline's control; maintenance failures, crew shortages and scheduling errors generally are not.
• Not keeping receipts. Claiming out-of-pocket expenses depends on proving them. Keep every receipt for meals, taxis, accommodation or alternative transport.
• Going straight to the ACCC. The ACCC says it doesn't resolve individual complaints about delayed or cancelled travel. For your specific claim, the airline, the ACA, your consumer body, or a tribunal or court is the path.
• Waiting too long to complain. The ACL has no single fixed warranty-style expiry, but limitation laws and forum rules apply, international claims under the Montreal Convention carry their own strict time limits, and the ACA's criteria include a 12-month window. Raise the issue in writing as soon as you can and keep a dated record.

Related reading

• Airline cancelled your flight: refund, credit, or rebook?
• Business refused your refund? Here's what to do next
• Which tribunal or court for your consumer dispute? NCAT, VCAT, QCAT and the rest
• Airline lost or damaged your baggage: your compensation rights

This article is general information about Australian Consumer Law, not legal advice. It also touches on complaint and escalation pathways (the Airline Customer Advocate, the proposed Aviation Consumer Ombuds Scheme, state and territory consumer bodies, tribunals and courts, the ACCC), airline conditions of carriage and compensation policies, card chargeback rules, the Montreal Convention, the domestic carrier-liability legislation and limitation laws, whose scope, rules, thresholds and processes sit outside the ACL or can change. Confirm the current position with the relevant body before lodging. For advice on your specific case, see your state or territory consumer body — full list at /agencies.