Laws applicable to Qantas

[Clarke P]

Hey guys,

At the moment I have to write up a report on Qantas for uni and i'm currently looking at the legal environment it's bound by.

I'm just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for the most important Acts related to airlines in Australia, and perhaps even more so the Acts relating specifically to Qantas?

I've already detailed stuff from the Chicago Convention, Civil Aviation Act 1988, Qantas Sale Act 1992, and laws relating to general business (competition, labor, etc) but somehow it feels like i'm still missing a lot of the info relating specifically to airlines.

Any advice you might have for me would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Ellis Taylor]

The Air Navigation Act (Cth - sorry, can't remember year) governs things like access to international air travel rights. Other than that some other ones are the Transport Security Investigation Act and the Transport Security Regulations are also applicable. Another relevant one is the Trade Practices Act, given the big actions the ACCC has taken against Qantas and others over cargo surcharge cartels in recent years.

Compared to other jurisdictions, Australia tends to take a fairly light-on approach to airlines, with most legislation being that which is essentially required to meet its ICAO and other similar obligations, with the focus otherwise being focused on safety.

[Rowan McKeever]

I think Air Nav Act is 1920?

Anyways there's all the other CASA stuff like the Civil Aviation Regulations, Civil Aviation Orders etc... all of which is available through the CASA website.

On top of that there are things like curfew legislation for SYD, ADL, OOL and Essendon, as well as the Sydney Airport Demand Management Act. Probably QF doesn't deal directly with that kind of stuff itself but its operations are certainly impacted by it.

Not sure whether any of the international air services treaties are considered legally binding but they also impact on QF's operations (eg under the treaty with the UK our airlines can only fly scheduled services to London).

[Wayne D]

Environmental Protection Act 1994 and associated regulations in one I didn't see above.

[Lee G]

The security legislation is the Aviation Transport Security Regulation 2004 (ATSR) a copy of which can be found on the Infrastructure.gov.au website

[Philip Argy]

Have a look at their annual report or, better still, any prospectus they have issued. The former usually mentions the statutory regime, and the latter must do so.

[Michael Cleary]

Also, the Qantas Sale Act - spells out limits on Shareholding, including Foreign Ownership, limit of what share another Airline can hold.

[Ray P.]

The Work Health and Safety Act 2012

[D Chan]

not sure if this one is applicable:
http://www.iasc.gov.au/legislative/index.aspx