Before ParliamentBusiness & Trade Introduced in the House of Representatives, 01 Apr 2026

Flyers would get minimum standards and a new ombudsperson

If you fly to, from or around Australia, this bill would give you a set of basic service rules. It would also give you a free outside body to take complaints to. And it would move the office for plane noise complaints into a government department.

Official name: Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Air travellers: You would get written basic standards. You would also get a free, outside place to take a complaint your airline or airport will not fix.
• Passengers with disability: The Charter is meant to set standards for help at airports and on planes. It would also cover care of wheelchairs and other mobility aids.
• Airlines: They would have to follow the Charter, join the complaints scheme and pay the fee. They could face big fines if they break the rules.
• Large airports: Airports with at least 1 million passengers a year would face the same duties for services such as parking and help for people with disability.
• People living under flight paths: They could ask a new noise complaints officer to review how their noise complaint was handled.

Late flights and rising complaints

People have complained about how airlines treat them for years. In 2012 the airlines set up their own Airline Customer Advocate. Its job was to deal with complaints the airlines had not fixed.

In 2024 the government put out a big plan for flying, called the Aviation White Paper. It found the advocate run by the airlines had not worked. It said the government needed to step in.

Complaints went up after COVID-19. In 2025, only 76.9 per cent of flights within Australia arrived on time. The long-term average is 80.5 per cent. About 2.5 per cent of flights were cancelled. The long-term rate is 2.2 per cent.

The competition and consumer watchdog checks that businesses trade fairly. It also reported more and more contacts from unhappy flyers.

This bill is the main one in a set of four. The other three set up and collect a fee to pay for the new system. They also fix up other laws so they fit. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Catherine King, brought in the bill.

Who the rules cover

The rules would cover airlines flying within, into or out of Australia. They would also cover airport owners. The minister can add other businesses linked to these services, or leave some out.

An airline service includes booking, check-in, boarding and bags. It also covers how you are treated during delays and cancellations, refunds, complaints and help on board.

An airport service is something an airport sells you directly for your flight, such as parking. Shops and food courts are not covered.

An airline might pay another company to do its check-in or bag handling. The airline is still responsible for how that company treats you.

The government plans to leave out airports with fewer than 1 million passengers a year. Many of these are small country airports run by councils. A government paper asking for comment said this would leave 14 airports. They handle nearly 90 per cent of all passengers.

A charter for flyers

Part 2 lets the minister write a Charter of basic standards. The minister can also write more detailed standards under it. These are rules the minister writes without a new vote. Parliament can still reject them.

The bill itself does not list the standards. The government's fact sheet says they will cover selling tickets, check-in and boarding. They will also cover delays and cancellations, refunds, lost or damaged bags, complaints and help for people with disability.

The plan is that when a delay or cancellation is the airline's fault, it must help you straight away. That means things like food and a hotel room. It must also rebook you or refund you where needed.

Say your evening flight is cancelled because the airline is short of staff. Under the Charter, the airline could have to give you a meal and somewhere to sleep. It could also have to give you a new seat or your money back.

A big company that breaks the Charter could face a large court fine. The top fine is the largest of three amounts. One is 30,300 fine units, where each unit is a set dollar amount. Another is three times what it gained. The last is 30 per cent of its sales over the time it broke the rules.

It would also be against the law to punish or threaten someone for complaining. That carries a fine of 100 units.

Ombudsperson for flyer complaints

An ombudsperson is an outside complaints officer. Part 3 lets the minister approve an outside company to run a complaints scheme for flyers. The person who runs it would be the Aviation Consumer Ombudsperson.

It is based on the outside complaints schemes for phones and for banking. Consumer groups asked for this model. Its board would have equal numbers of airline people and people who speak for customers.

Every airline and airport covered must join the scheme and pay its fee. Not joining carries a fine of up to 1,500 units. The minister can let some of them off the fee.

You would usually have to try to sort out your complaint with the airline or airport first. If that fails, the complaints officer can look into it and ask for papers. The officer can also call a meeting where both sides sit down with a go-between.

If that still fails, the officer can make a decision both sides must follow. It can back the airline. Or it can change the airline's decision, so you end up where you would have been if treated fairly. The minister can ask a court to make the airline obey it.

Either side can ask the Federal Court, a national court, to look again. It can only check whether the law was applied right. The minister can also tell the scheme to raise any limits on how much it can award.

The aircraft noise ombudsperson

Part 4 deals with plane noise. It mostly affects people living near airports and under flight paths.

There has been a noise complaints officer since 2010. But it sits inside Airservices Australia, the agency that runs air traffic control. Air traffic control guides planes safely through the sky. The White Paper said this could look like a clash of interests.

The bill moves the job into the transport department. The head of the department must name a senior public servant to fill it.

You would still complain first to Airservices Australia. For military planes, you would complain to the Department of Defence. If you are unhappy with how they handled it, you could then ask the noise complaints officer to review it.

The officer can also start its own reviews. These can look at how these agencies talk with the community and share noise facts. The minister can give general orders, but not about a single case.

New regulator and its powers

Part 5 gives the minister and the head of the department the power to make sure the rules are followed. In practice, a new team inside the transport department would do this. It would be called the Aviation Consumer Protection Authority.

This team looks for patterns of bad behaviour across all airlines and airports. The complaints officer deals with one complaint at a time.

The team can demand papers and make people answer questions. Ignoring a demand for papers costs 6 fine units for every day it goes unanswered.

It can hand out on-the-spot fines. These are 120 units for a company listed on the stock market, 60 for other companies and 12 for a person.

It can also accept written promises from a business that a court can make it keep. And it can ask a court to order a business to stop doing something.

It can send a notice telling an airline or airport what to fix and by when. Ignoring one carries a fine of 60 units.

Records, sharing and appeals

Part 6 lets the minister make rules for airlines and airports to keep some records and publish some facts. Breaking those rules carries a fine of 60 units. The department can also share facts with other agencies.

Part 7 lets a business ask the department to look again at a notice to fix something. Some of those decisions can then go to a body that reviews government decisions. It is like a court but less formal.

Part 8 lets the minister and the head of the department hand their powers to officials. It also lets the minister make more detailed rules.

Start date

The main parts start on a date the government sets. If no date is set, they start 12 months after the bill becomes law. A bill becomes law when the Governor-General signs it. The Governor-General is the King's representative in Australia.

The bill was brought into the House of Representatives on 1 April 2026. That is the house of Parliament where the government sits. The House passed it on 29 June 2026.

It went to the Senate, the other house of Parliament, on 30 June 2026. The Senate has started the vote on the main idea of the bill. A group of senators was asked to report on the four bills by 19 June 2026. The Senate still has to debate and vote on it before it can become law.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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