'Teflon' Toomey fussed over the details
By ROY MASTERS
and GEOFFREY THOMAS
Monday 24 September 2001
Air New Zealand chief Gary Toomey admits he is obsessed by security, which
helps explain why he believes he would need an army to protect him if he
ever returned to Australia.
"I think that the recent tragedy in the United States demonstrates that
anyone with a position of responsibility in an airline should be obsessed
with security," he said in answer to a series of questions faxed to his
secure floor in the Auckland headquarters of the airline he has headed since
January this year.
"Concern for safety and security is basic to survival in the airline
industry." An obsession with airline security or personal safety? When
Toomey's face became the centre of Ansett's $20 million advertising campaign
following the Easter grounding of their Boeing 767-200 fleet, he had a
personal bodyguard.
His former colleagues at Qantas claim he would instruct staff to gain a
security assessment to determine the safety of a journey from Mascot to the
Rocks. His $3 million home on Sydney's north shore was turned into an
electronic fortress with a sophisticated security system. He had a satellite
navigation system installed in his 7 series BMW.
His annual mobile phone bill of $120,000 was generated by an obsession with
detail, even to the extent of leaving long voicemail messages to staff at
midnight. When expensive furniture was installed in his office at Qantas's
corporate headquarters at Mascot, Toomey ordered the replacement of a desk
because there was a small crack in the grain. Still, the crack would have
been noticeable because Toomey prides himself on a paperless desk.
His obsession with cleanliness extends to staff being warned of his
impending arrival at a port, with a cleaning crew employed to check for
lipstick marks on glasses in airport lounges or chewing gum under seats.
Asked how he defended his reputation for micromanaging, Toomey said: "With
ease. If others are prepared to deliver sub-standard levels of care and
cleanliness to our customers, I am not.
"I want all of my colleagues to share a sense of responsibility for
delivering high standards of service to our customers at every level of our
operations, and I try to lead by example. If I don't care - why should they?
Although Toomey became Ansett's frontman after the Easter crisis this year
when the Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded the fleet, he remained (in
his words) "hunkered down" in New Zealand while his vice president
operations Trevor Jensen struggled to explain Ansett's predicament.
It was the biggest day in the company's 65-year history.
Toomey denies he was ordered out of his Auckland office by Air New Zealand
chairman Sir Selwyn Cushing, saying, "While I was in New Zealand when the
grounding was ordered, I was advised of it immediately. "My first task was
to determine how much of the Air New Zealand fleet could be sent to
Australia to cover what amounted to the loss of a quarter of Ansett's normal
carrying capacity at the busiest time of the year."
"My next task was to start contacting other allied airlines around the world
to see what additional aircraft they could provide. As soon as I had done
all I could to put those arrangements in train, I flew to Australia to
oversee the recovery operation.
"I kept my chairman advised of what I was doing throughout and there was no
order needed to get me to go back to Australia."
Still, some of his former colleagues at Qantas see a link between Toomey's
Easter hunker down and his non-involvement in the September 1999 crisis when
QF1 overran the Bangkok runway.
As deputy ceo operations, making him responsible for pilots and engineering,
the organisation of the recovery was Toomey's responsibility.
His executive general manager (operations) David Forsythe took charge while
Toomey was in Fiji and later Hong Kong. Toomey denies he avoided any
responsibility, saying, "I was in Fiji attending a board meeting of Air
Pacific when the incident in Bangkok occurred. The company's decision was
that the chief executive (James Strong) would take responsibility for
communication about it."
The Air Transport Safety Board report on the Qantas accident attributed
blame in part to cost-cutting and incorrect procedures.Toomey simultaneously
accepts and sheds accountability for this, saying, "I share the
responsibilities of all Qantas management in regard to this matter. "While
cost cutting targets were set to support commercial and operational
viability of the airline, unit managers were responsible for determining how
they would be achieved".
"My particular responsibility was for managing the achievement of the
general target - not for determining the individual measures that unit
managers took to deliver their contribution."
Mr Toomey deserves considerable credit for the financial strength of the
Australian Airlines-Qantas merger.
As head of AA's financial division, Toomey showed a fresh and innovative
approach to airline finance and quickly joined Qantas when Strong became
CEO.
Mr Toomey recruited some of the best financial brains as he helped Mr Strong
sort out the financial puzzle.
When Mr Toomey arrived at Air NZ-Ansett, adding the title president to his
chief executive role, he was already in damage control. Ansett's 767s had
been grounded over the Christmas holidays after a maintenance blunder.
Three key corporate clients were ready to walk. This would have crippled the
airline.
Mr Toomey did the rounds of corporate Melbourne and Sydney to talk up the
ailing airline. It worked. However, there were not only cracks in the Ansett
aircraft, the airline's executive was anything but cohesive.
Mr Toomey put his faith in George Frazis, his strategy executive, who is
described by insiders as very bright but not always on side with others in
the executive team. Mr Toomey stood by Mr Frazis.
Most on the executive team wanted a 20 per cent cut in staff at Ansett but
Mr Toomey's entire strategy was to take Virgin Blue out with a takeover,
thus eliminating the low-fare competition that had laid bare Ansett's
bloated high-cost structure.
Mr Toomey defends his team, saying: "My management team was appointed to
find problems and suggest ways to fix them. I'm going to defend that team of
people - many of whom worked round the clock, gave up days off and holidays,
and are now being vilified for trying to find solutions to problems that
weren't of their making."
Mr Toomey, 46, is known for his great acts of compassion to staff, being
generous and kind to those with personal problems.
He will be embroiled in Ansett affairs for some time yet, now that the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission has launched an
investigation into whether the airline was trading while insolvent. A leaked
Air NZ-Ansett document has cast doubts on the airline group's unaudited
results, which claimed a trading loss of only $150 million for Ansett
Holdings, before interest and tax, in the year just ended.
The document was part of a comprehensive Air NZ-Ansett pitch to the
Australian Government in late June garnering support for Singapore Airlines
to take a big stake in Air NZ, and thus Ansett, and bailing out the
Australian airline.
In the presentation, Mr Toomey told Australian Deputy Prime Minister John
Anderson that Ansett would lose $250 million before tax, a $360 million
turnaround from the previous year.
However, in early June, a senior executive at Ansett who was leaking
information to the West Australian newspaper said that the loss was at least
$400 million with some internal estimates as high as $460 million. The paper
published that figure on June 9, but Toomey said the claim was ill-informed.
However, at the same time Toomey appeared to verify the $400 million loss
figure, telling Anderson that Ansett was losing a staggering $18 million a
week.
Mr Toomey insists he has not blamed Singapore Airlines or former part owners
News Ltd or Qantas or the board of Air New Zealand for Ansett's demise.
Nicknamed "Teflon Toomey" at Qantas because nothing stuck, he is now
receiving death threats, admitting, "I can't go back to Australia. I
literally can't, unless I go with an army."