Qantas data hack exposes alarming gap in consumer protections

CHOICE repeats call for an airline ombuds scheme following a massive data breach at Australia's largest carrier.

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Last updated: 3 Jul 2025

qantas airbus planes taxiing at airport with red binary data in background

CHOICE is reiterating urgent calls for an airline ombuds scheme after revelations of a widespread data breach at Australia’s biggest airline, Qantas.

On Wednesday, Qantas revealed that they had detected “unusual activity” on a platform used by their contact centres earlier in the week, and that initial investigations found data such as customer names, emails, dates of birth and frequent flyer numbers had been compromised.

Qantas says that credit card details and passport details were not held in the system that was breached

The airline says some six million customers had data stored on the service platform in question and that a “significant” amount of customer data had likely been stolen.

Qantas says that credit card details and passport details were not held in the system that was breached.

Time for an ombuds scheme

Bea Sherwood, senior campaigns and policy advisor at CHOICE, says the data hack highlights the urgent need for a strong aviation ombuds scheme to support airline customers and facilitate complaints when events like this occur.

“This is not the first time Qantas customers have had issues with the airline, with CHOICE giving the company a Shonky Award in 2022 for unusable flight credits, delayed flights, and more,” she says.

There is currently no equivalent independent body for airline customers to raise concerns – a huge gap in our consumer protection system
CHOICE senior campaigns and policy advisor Bea Sherwood

“Despite ongoing issues with Qantas and other airlines since, customers still don’t have an effective means of directing or resolving their complaints. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman consider financial and telco complaints, including about data breaches,” she says. “There is currently no equivalent independent body for airline customers to raise concerns – a huge gap in our consumer protection system.”

“As airlines become more data driven, a robust ombuds scheme to protect consumers is needed more than ever,” says Sherwood.

Jarni

Jarni Blakkarly is an award-winning Investigative Journalist at CHOICE. Jarni has worked for news organisations such as SBS, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, ABC 730, Radio National, BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle. Jarni won the Walkley Foundation's young journalist of the year student category award in 2016 and was the recipient of a Melbourne Press Club Michael Gordon fellowship in 2022. In 2023 he was a highly commended finalist in the Quill Awards and a winner at the 2024 Excellence in Civil Liberties journalism awards. In 2024 he was elected to serve on the Federal Council (National Media Section) of the MEAA. Jarni has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Find Jarni on Twitter and LinkedIn.