Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) has disclosed that an IT error resulted in it overcharging 61,000 passengers over a five-year period. The airline says it recently became aware of "some issues" that arose when passengers requested itinerary changes. Those issues saw passengers paying more than they should have. Virgin Australia says it is proactively addressing the problem, including appointing Deloitte to handle the refund process.
"We immediately launched an internal investigation to understand what happened, the impact on our guests, and took a number of actions to prevent this from occurring in the future," reads a statement on the Virgin Australia website. "This issue involves approximately 0.1% of all bookings processed from April 21, 2020, to March 31, 2025, and the average refund amount is AUD55 Australian dollars (USD35)."
Virgin Australia says it has worked to fix the specific technical issues, has completed a review of the relevant processes across the business, and implemented formal governance to support the ongoing management of its booking and ticketing policy. The airline voluntarily disclosed the problem and notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Virgin Australia is Australia's second-largest scheduled passenger operator after Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith), flying to 35 airports around the country and some neighbouring markets including Indonesia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa. There is an expectation its majority owner, Bain Capital, will move to relist the carrier on the Australian Stock Exchange later this year. This follows Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) recently spending around AUD750 million (USD475 million) to acquire a 25% stake in the airline.
