194,000 Jetstar Asia customers can recover $11.4m in unused bookings, vouchers: Singapore court

SINGAPORE – About 194,000 customers of low-cost airline Jetstar Asia with unused bookings and vouchers are entitled to get refunds totalling $11.4 million without having to prove their claims.

This emerged in written grounds of decision issued on Sept 24 by the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC).

SICC International Judge Christopher Scott Sontchi had on May 21 approved a restructuring scheme proposed by the airline as part of the decision by its parent company, Australian carrier Qantas, to cease its business in South-east Asia and Japan.

A salient feature of the scheme was to place all consumer creditors - customers with tickets, bookings or vouchers - into a single category known as an administrative convenience class.

Those under this classification are excluded from voting on the restructuring scheme and are deemed to have unanimously approved its terms.

As a result, this group of creditors do not need to submit a proof of debt, which is a legal document filed by a creditor to substantiate a claim, or take any other action in connection with the scheme.

The judge also set out guidelines on when such a mechanism can be used under Singapore law.

Sontchi said the applicant must justify and substantiate the gains in efficacy, feasibility or administrative convenience.

The court must also consider the prejudice caused to both the members of that class and others who may be affected.

The SICC decision comes in the wake of the airline winding up its business in Singapore after securing financial support from the Qantas Group to refund retail customers and settle its other liabilities.

The directors of Jetstar Asia Airways, the Singapore-incorporated company that operates the airline, had announced on June 11, 2025 that they would permanently cease the Jetstar Asia business.

Jetstar Asia then applied to the SICC to seek approval for a scheme to settle its liabilities. 

The airline, represented by Senior Counsel Abraham Vergis, proposed the application of an administrative convenience class in the interests of the scheme’s efficacy and feasibility.

The court allowed the company to hold a creditors’ meeting. At the meeting on April 15, all nine non-consumer creditors present voted in favour of the scheme.

The consumer creditors comprised about 194,000 people as of Jan 14, 2026.

At the court hearing on May 21, the airline noted that nearly 146,000 of the customers held vouchers with an available balance of below $20.

It argued that it would have been administratively impractical and disproportionately expensive to hold a meeting for customers to vote on the scheme.

The airline added that it was not unfair to require non-consumer creditors, who have larger claims and are likely aware of their legal rights, to file a proof of debt while dispensing with this for customers with lower-value claims.

Sontchi agreed that the use of an administrative convenience class was appropriate in this case.

The judge said that the present case was unlike the conventional insolvent scheme of arrangement, where payments to one group comes at the expense of payments to others.

None of the creditors are adversely affected by the scheme, he said.

The judge said the airline has also provided evidence that the time and resources required to allow around 194,000 individuals to vote would be disproportionate given the average quantum of their claims.

The average claim value per customer with tickets or bookings was $161.67, and the average claim value per customer holding vouchers with balance was $58.03.

As of January 2026, uptake of the existing refund programme, which started in June 2025, remained at only around 30 per cent of total eligible customers.