The peak body representing Australian businesses engaged with the visitor economy has today welcomed the release of the Aviation White Paper, especially the establishment of an ‘ombuds scheme’ to better protect consumers.

However, Australian Chamber – Tourism Executive Chair John Hart said it was disappointing the paper didn’t go further in pushing for competition reform and improvements to passenger facilitation.

“While we welcome the announced consumer protections and further opportunities for consultation, we lament the lack of ambition in today’s plan,” said Mr Hart

“The Australian visitor economy is reliant on a competitive aviation sector as it continues to rebound in the post pandemic era.”

“The White Paper was a unique opportunity to address competition issues – and it has in some respect, but many of the reforms outlined in the paper had already been announced or represent existing government policy.”

Mr Hart also said Australian Chamber – Tourism would have liked to have seen more measures to reform passenger facilitation to improve the passenger experience as they transit through our airports.

“Whilst Australia ranks fifth in the world for travel and tourism competitiveness, we are 53rd for ground and port infrastructure and 112th for price competitiveness out 119 countries.

“This was a great opportunity to adopt industry recommendations and set out a vision for how to improve these processes over the coming decades, as we did recently in our Future Traveller Strategy.”

Mr Hart said he welcomed other measures announced in the White Paper such as support for regional airports to be upgraded and measures to assist the sector move towards net zero emissions.

“While there are some areas the White Paper did not deliver on, we welcome further opportunities to engage with the government and industry on improving consumer experiences and delivering a sustainable travel industry.”