KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Qantas Airways misled nearly one million customers by selling tickets for tens of thousands of flights that did not exist, according to court documents revealing the extent of the scandal and the airline’s awareness of the issue.

Last year, Qantas settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay A$120 million (RM340 million) in fines and compensation for selling tickets on flights it had already decided to cancel.

The airline admitted to misleading customers by failing to inform them that they had been booked on non-existent services.

The scandal led to the early resignation of CEO Alan Joyce in 2023, though it was unclear at the time how much the airline knew about the problem.

Bloomberg reported today that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), which brought the case, had sought a record penalty of over A$250 million.

A statement of agreed facts, posted on the Federal Court of Australia’s website today, revealed that Qantas "senior managers” were aware of the impact on passengers, though no single individual had a full understanding of the situation.

"Qantas was aware of the way in which its system operated,” the document stated.

"Consumers suffered harm as a result of Qantas’s contravening conduct.”

The managers involved were not identified, and Qantas did not respond to an inquiry from Bloomberg about whether current CEO Vanessa Hudson, formerly the group chief financial officer, was among them.

According to Bloomberg, the filing also showed that Qantas continued selling tickets on 71,000 cancelled flights between May 2022 and May 2024, affecting as many as 884,000 customers.

The airline typically took 11 days to inform passengers their flights had been cancelled.

Qantas has since updated its systems.