Mr Fitzgibbon asked the Acting Minister for Transport and Regional Services, upon notice, on 4 February 2003:

Are passengers who travel with commercial airlines protected by legislation for their costs if the airlines become insolvent; if so, what percentage of those costs are protected.

Mr Tuckey (Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

There is no specific legislation that broadly covers the indemnity of passengers for losses if commercial airline services (both domestic and international) fail.

In the case of international non scheduled services, however, the Air Navigation Act 1920 as amended requires a charter operator seeking to operate a program of non-scheduled passenger services (charter services) to satisfy the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services, as part of the application:

“that holders of tickets for the flight or any of the flights will be indemnified for any financial loss that may be caused by the failure of the charter operator:

(a) to fulfil its obligations; or

(b) if the application relates to a program of flights - to complete the program.”