Leadership the Qantas Way
The average fleet age is 15 years old, yet even the newer aircraft (787s and refurbed A380s) are buckets of sh!t. Qantas engineering sacked so many engineers and shut down so many departments during COVID that they no longer have a dedicated department to maintain their aircraft cabins. Business seat locked out? Standard these days. Toilet seats cracked? Yep no spares. Cabin just looking shabby? Thanks Alan.
They did try using the LAX maintenance base to fill the shortfall of engineers in Australia but LAX is a bigger failure than planned.
But Kylie sang and they have a rainbow liveried A330 so Alan is happy.
They did try using the LAX maintenance base to fill the shortfall of engineers in Australia but LAX is a bigger failure than planned.
But Kylie sang and they have a rainbow liveried A330 so Alan is happy.
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First class fares, second rate product.
Then you have this cringe horse$hit. So the first time she has spoken in 6 months according to the reporter. So you are basically saying you have been in hiding for the last half.
The average fleet age is 15 years old, yet even the newer aircraft (787s and refurbed A380s) are buckets of sh!t. Qantas engineering sacked so many engineers and shut down so many departments during COVID that they no longer have a dedicated department to maintain their aircraft cabins. Business seat locked out? Standard these days. Toilet seats cracked? Yep no spares. Cabin just looking shabby? Thanks Alan.
They did try using the LAX maintenance base to fill the shortfall of engineers in Australia but LAX is a bigger failure than planned.
But Kylie sang and they have a rainbow liveried A330 so Alan is happy.
They did try using the LAX maintenance base to fill the shortfall of engineers in Australia but LAX is a bigger failure than planned.
But Kylie sang and they have a rainbow liveried A330 so Alan is happy.
Thread Starter
MELs are used to the last day of expiry then either extended by ATPs or card interchanged/plug cleaned fault did not reoccur MEL written off then on next sector fault reoccurs and MEL is restarted. CASA of course are entirely absent from any surveillance of this or anything else in Qantas.
Puppeteer and his puppets
I’m guessing once the Irish puppeteer leaves three things will happen;
1. Olivia will be wurtless,
2. Vanessa will ditch in the Hudson, and
3. John will go Missing.
1. Olivia will be wurtless,
2. Vanessa will ditch in the Hudson, and
3. John will go Missing.
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Looking on the bright side, the carcass cannot rot any more, only bones remain.
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Rear Window 
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Last month, the country’s leading institutional broker UBS became the first to downgrade Qantas stock on the basis that “after several years of below-average investment… the scale of new fleet capex is likely to exceed previous cycles and may surprise the market” and noting “we believe consensus capex forecasts are at risk of increasing in order to support revenue and earnings already assumed.”
At the risk of sounding like Christopher Joye, we have been saying this for some time.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is on track to retire this Christmas with roughly $125 million in total realised pay over his 15 years in charge. Louise Kennerely The same week as the UBS downgrade, Qantas launched a major tactical advertising campaign – occupying billboards, bus shelters, printed newspapers and any website trafficking in cookies – to reassure the airline’s deeply jaded customers that it would receive “1 [new] aircraft every 3 weeks over the next 3 years.”
The detailed fleet research behind the UBS recommendation, led by analyst Andre Fromyhr, estimates that 70 aircraft (or 22 per cent of the Qantas fleet by number of planes) will be retired over the 2024-2028 financial years and that Qantas will need to spend $12 billion in that period just to meet its committed deliveries and replace aircraft that have reached the hoary age of 25 years old. It would cost far, far more than $12 billion to keep the fleet at its present age.
For some sense of scale, $12 billion is the rough equivalent of three years of (record) operating cashflow. This maintenance capex will significantly impair the company’s ability to maintain shareholder distributions at anything like their current levels. Of course, none of this will be Joyce’s problem.Joyce inherited a fleet in 2008 “forecast to remain between 8.5 and 8.9 years [based on] the existing contractually committed long-term fleet plan.” By 2014, the Qantas Group passenger fleet was even younger, at 7.7 years. It had blown out to 14.1 years by December 2022 (bear in mind, these average ages exclude Network Aviation, whose average aircraft age is already 25 years).
In August 2021, Qantas told the market that its “nominal retirement age” of 20 years had been extended to between 24 and 26 years, partly justified by reduced usage during COVID. This brought Qantas into line with its global peers Iran Air and Air Zimbabwe, though Australia is not at this stage subject to international sanctions.
Today, Qantas management argues that age is just a number. Group treasurer Greg Manning told The Australian this month that average age “has always been a factor in our fleet planning process but it’s definitely not the main factor and hasn’t been for some time.”
Part of this argument is valid. Shareholders don’t want Qantas to be overcapitalised and so are supportive of prolonging aircraft life (with new engines and new seats).
The rest of the argument is a post-rationalisation for extreme underinvestment designed to artificially juice profits and the share price in the final years of Joyce’s reign, right before he takes his massive sack of bonuses and pulls the ripcord on his parachute, leaving the company flying into a capex mountain.
Joyce cannot blame any of this on COVID. He didn’t order a single new aircraft for Qantas mainline until 2019. He’d been CEO for 11 years. He’d already slashed the standing order for 787 Dreamliners from 65 to 25. He made a huge new Airbus order for Jetstar in 2011, which he deferred in 2014, in 2017 and again in 2018.
Here’s an instructive comparison. The Qantas Group took delivery of just five new passenger aircraft in financial 2018 (the year Joyce was paid $24 million) and three in FY19. According to UBS, Qantas will receive 25 new passenger planes in FY25 and 26 in FY26. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Joyce. It’s almost like he made it that way!
Joyce recently complained to The Australian Financial Review about his coverage in this column, and to demonstrate the full support of the Qantas board, chairman Richard Goyder held his hand as Joyce made the complaint. They are aggrieved that my criticism of Joyce has become personal.
It is not personal, of course. I am unconcerned whether Joyce is short or tall, gay or straight, Irish or Australian, here or there. I’ve never criticised his DNA, only what he says and does in the course of his work.
Over the past year, Joyce became liable to say ridiculously self-unaware things: that he’s not a public figure (so don’t ask him to justify his European vacation in the peak of a company crisis); that Qantas received “very little government support” in the pandemic; that “union claims… cause a lot of people to lose their jobs” when since 2008 he’d eliminated more than 15,000 (or 42 per cent) of jobs from the Qantas workforce; then that Qantas will hire 8,500 new staff by 2033 (what is he now, a clairvoyant?); even implying that Qantas would reduce its egregiously high airfares just as soon as its competitors started adding more flights.
Joyce now requests that at the end of any column I write about Qantas, I should disclose that I am a former employee. I left the company 13 years ago on perfectly good terms.
Such a disclaimer would make everything right! It would cause all valid criticism to disappear, miraculously reverse the underinvestment in the Qantas fleet and suddenly all of his customers would love Qantas again. Is this seriously the best Alan’s got?! Incidentally, his request is refused.
Joyce confuses personal criticism with individualised criticism, and my criticism is individualised because he is the individual whose ego totally dominates the Qantas organisation. His executives are in the bunker with a mad king in his last days and for any person who presents a truth he doesn’t like, the consequences are real. Joyce’s lieutenants mete out the same justice to their underlings. Goyder has been warned about this culture on multiple occasions and has declined to act.
Joyce’s CFO (and heir apparent) Vanessa Hudson wouldn’t even say to him last month, “No thanks Alan, I won’t be putting my name on this embarrassing letter to the Financial Review wading into your fight.” Where was her judgment?
The problem for people who surround themselves exclusively with sycophants is that they become ill-equipped to cope with negative feedback.
The role of the Qantas board here is coming into sharp focus. It is simply extraordinary that the directors consider it their responsibility to rehabilitate the egoic injuries of Alan Joyce. That soothing his hurt feelings would chew up a moment of the board’s time is truly wacky.
Rather, the board should be paying Joyce lip service while actually focused on getting him out the door before he does the company any further reputational damage.
Joyce is on track to retire this Christmas with roughly $125 million in total realised pay over his 15 years in charge. It’s not enough – he needs to be revered, too. He’s a Companion of the Order of Australia, don’t you know? An Australian business legend.
There is a difference between backing your CEO and indulging him. By now, any half-shrewd chairman would’ve told Alan to harden the f--- up
Alan Joyce has had enough
Joe AstonColumnistApr 16, 2023 – 7.30pmSave
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Last month, the country’s leading institutional broker UBS became the first to downgrade Qantas stock on the basis that “after several years of below-average investment… the scale of new fleet capex is likely to exceed previous cycles and may surprise the market” and noting “we believe consensus capex forecasts are at risk of increasing in order to support revenue and earnings already assumed.”
At the risk of sounding like Christopher Joye, we have been saying this for some time.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is on track to retire this Christmas with roughly $125 million in total realised pay over his 15 years in charge. Louise Kennerely The same week as the UBS downgrade, Qantas launched a major tactical advertising campaign – occupying billboards, bus shelters, printed newspapers and any website trafficking in cookies – to reassure the airline’s deeply jaded customers that it would receive “1 [new] aircraft every 3 weeks over the next 3 years.”The detailed fleet research behind the UBS recommendation, led by analyst Andre Fromyhr, estimates that 70 aircraft (or 22 per cent of the Qantas fleet by number of planes) will be retired over the 2024-2028 financial years and that Qantas will need to spend $12 billion in that period just to meet its committed deliveries and replace aircraft that have reached the hoary age of 25 years old. It would cost far, far more than $12 billion to keep the fleet at its present age.
For some sense of scale, $12 billion is the rough equivalent of three years of (record) operating cashflow. This maintenance capex will significantly impair the company’s ability to maintain shareholder distributions at anything like their current levels. Of course, none of this will be Joyce’s problem.Joyce inherited a fleet in 2008 “forecast to remain between 8.5 and 8.9 years [based on] the existing contractually committed long-term fleet plan.” By 2014, the Qantas Group passenger fleet was even younger, at 7.7 years. It had blown out to 14.1 years by December 2022 (bear in mind, these average ages exclude Network Aviation, whose average aircraft age is already 25 years).
In August 2021, Qantas told the market that its “nominal retirement age” of 20 years had been extended to between 24 and 26 years, partly justified by reduced usage during COVID. This brought Qantas into line with its global peers Iran Air and Air Zimbabwe, though Australia is not at this stage subject to international sanctions.
Today, Qantas management argues that age is just a number. Group treasurer Greg Manning told The Australian this month that average age “has always been a factor in our fleet planning process but it’s definitely not the main factor and hasn’t been for some time.”
Part of this argument is valid. Shareholders don’t want Qantas to be overcapitalised and so are supportive of prolonging aircraft life (with new engines and new seats).
The rest of the argument is a post-rationalisation for extreme underinvestment designed to artificially juice profits and the share price in the final years of Joyce’s reign, right before he takes his massive sack of bonuses and pulls the ripcord on his parachute, leaving the company flying into a capex mountain.
Joyce cannot blame any of this on COVID. He didn’t order a single new aircraft for Qantas mainline until 2019. He’d been CEO for 11 years. He’d already slashed the standing order for 787 Dreamliners from 65 to 25. He made a huge new Airbus order for Jetstar in 2011, which he deferred in 2014, in 2017 and again in 2018.
Here’s an instructive comparison. The Qantas Group took delivery of just five new passenger aircraft in financial 2018 (the year Joyce was paid $24 million) and three in FY19. According to UBS, Qantas will receive 25 new passenger planes in FY25 and 26 in FY26. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Joyce. It’s almost like he made it that way!
Joyce recently complained to The Australian Financial Review about his coverage in this column, and to demonstrate the full support of the Qantas board, chairman Richard Goyder held his hand as Joyce made the complaint. They are aggrieved that my criticism of Joyce has become personal.
It is not personal, of course. I am unconcerned whether Joyce is short or tall, gay or straight, Irish or Australian, here or there. I’ve never criticised his DNA, only what he says and does in the course of his work.
Over the past year, Joyce became liable to say ridiculously self-unaware things: that he’s not a public figure (so don’t ask him to justify his European vacation in the peak of a company crisis); that Qantas received “very little government support” in the pandemic; that “union claims… cause a lot of people to lose their jobs” when since 2008 he’d eliminated more than 15,000 (or 42 per cent) of jobs from the Qantas workforce; then that Qantas will hire 8,500 new staff by 2033 (what is he now, a clairvoyant?); even implying that Qantas would reduce its egregiously high airfares just as soon as its competitors started adding more flights.
Joyce now requests that at the end of any column I write about Qantas, I should disclose that I am a former employee. I left the company 13 years ago on perfectly good terms.
Such a disclaimer would make everything right! It would cause all valid criticism to disappear, miraculously reverse the underinvestment in the Qantas fleet and suddenly all of his customers would love Qantas again. Is this seriously the best Alan’s got?! Incidentally, his request is refused.
Joyce confuses personal criticism with individualised criticism, and my criticism is individualised because he is the individual whose ego totally dominates the Qantas organisation. His executives are in the bunker with a mad king in his last days and for any person who presents a truth he doesn’t like, the consequences are real. Joyce’s lieutenants mete out the same justice to their underlings. Goyder has been warned about this culture on multiple occasions and has declined to act.
Joyce’s CFO (and heir apparent) Vanessa Hudson wouldn’t even say to him last month, “No thanks Alan, I won’t be putting my name on this embarrassing letter to the Financial Review wading into your fight.” Where was her judgment?
The problem for people who surround themselves exclusively with sycophants is that they become ill-equipped to cope with negative feedback.
The role of the Qantas board here is coming into sharp focus. It is simply extraordinary that the directors consider it their responsibility to rehabilitate the egoic injuries of Alan Joyce. That soothing his hurt feelings would chew up a moment of the board’s time is truly wacky.
Rather, the board should be paying Joyce lip service while actually focused on getting him out the door before he does the company any further reputational damage.
Joyce is on track to retire this Christmas with roughly $125 million in total realised pay over his 15 years in charge. It’s not enough – he needs to be revered, too. He’s a Companion of the Order of Australia, don’t you know? An Australian business legend.
There is a difference between backing your CEO and indulging him. By now, any half-shrewd chairman would’ve told Alan to harden the f--- up
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In August 2021, Qantas told the market that its “nominal retirement age” of 20 years had been extended to between 24 and 26 years, partly justified by reduced usage during COVID. This brought Qantas into line with its global peers Iran Air and Air Zimbabwe, though Australia is not at this stage subject to international sanctions.
Please tell me they are not still operating those A330s with the portable iPad in the seat pocket Internationally?
Says a lot when they have been put in a catergory where those other 2 airlines are.
It wouldnt matter how bad a job the little man was doing now or in the past,his cronies on the board are just as good as milking the cow as he is & then telling anyone who wants to believe it,what a great job he has done.
It wouldnt matter how bad a job the little man was doing now or in the past,his cronies on the board are just as good as milking the cow as he is & then telling anyone who wants to believe it,what a great job he has done.
The board and C suite are engaged in a huge circle jerk designed solely for the enrichment of the players and keeping alive enough of the airline to justify the Chairman's Lounge regulator capture scheme. Once you compromise oversight you get away clean; random griping in the AFR is just noise despite both its accuracy and its predictability.
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There are certain similarities between the way Goyder is overseeing the CEO changes at the AFL to that of Qantas. He seems to be quite the fan of both outgoing CEO's, and not keen to move on from either. Maybe he feels vulnerable without them.
https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/news-20...3-150157443639
https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/news-20...3-150157443639
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In Monty Python's "The meaning of life" the gluttonous Mr Creosote stuffs his stomach with more and more food until he explodes.
When I hear of a gluttonous amount of money being stuffed into some individuals pocket in an analogous fashion I can only hope for the same outcome.
When I hear of a gluttonous amount of money being stuffed into some individuals pocket in an analogous fashion I can only hope for the same outcome.
Qantas is set to party like it's 2020 on Friday night when the airline holds the black tie gala dinner originally planned to mark its 100th birthday almost three years ago.
With a guest list that runs to 1000 people and international acts headlining the entertainment, the evening is being billed as the "hottest ticket in Sydney".
Much like the airline's secretive Chairman's Lounge, Qantas is being tight-lipped about who is invited to the hangar party, which will be catered by celebrity chef Neil Perry.
It's understood the chief executives of banks, mining companies and international airlines did make the guest list, along with television identities, politicians and sports stars Adam Goodes and Bronte Campbell.
A number of Oantas staff have also scored an invitation by way of thanks for sticking with the company through the pandemic - that derailed the original event.
Oantas declined to comment on the entertainment line-up other than to hint that two homegrown international stars would perform, along with the Bangarra Dance Theatre and ARIA award-winning artist Budjerah.
The 21-year-old singer-songwriter recently reached new audiences when he toured with British pop star Ed Sheeran.
Actor Rodger Corser and television presenter Sylvia Jeffreys are set to MC the gala, which will be addressed by CEO Alan Joyce.
He will be joined by Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and the airline's executive team, plus former chief executive Geoff Dixon and ex-chairmen Leigh Clifford and Margaret Jackson.
The budget for the party is also being closely guarded, although there is no question Qantas can afford such a glamorous do.
The carrier clocked a record half-year profit in the six months to December 31 of $1.43bn. Qantas last formal affair in 2015 was attended by John Travolta and his wife, the late Kelly Preston, supermodels Miranda Kerr and Jess Hart, and singer Ronan Keating. Bernard Fanning and Tina Arena serenaded the crowd, who were welcomed into the cavernous hangar by aerial acrobats.
On Thursday, a Qantas insider revealed the most asked question by invitees was "would Travolta return?"
A long-time ambassador of the airline and qualified pilot, Travolta was expected to attend a memorial for his former co-star Olivia Newton-John in Melbourne last month but failed to appear.
He has kept a low profile since breaking down at the Oscars, while paying tribute to Dame Olivia.
Kelly Preston, 57, lost her battle with breast cancer in July 2020. She and Travolta were married for 28-years.
THE AUSTRALIAN
With a guest list that runs to 1000 people and international acts headlining the entertainment, the evening is being billed as the "hottest ticket in Sydney".
Much like the airline's secretive Chairman's Lounge, Qantas is being tight-lipped about who is invited to the hangar party, which will be catered by celebrity chef Neil Perry.
It's understood the chief executives of banks, mining companies and international airlines did make the guest list, along with television identities, politicians and sports stars Adam Goodes and Bronte Campbell.
A number of Oantas staff have also scored an invitation by way of thanks for sticking with the company through the pandemic - that derailed the original event.
Oantas declined to comment on the entertainment line-up other than to hint that two homegrown international stars would perform, along with the Bangarra Dance Theatre and ARIA award-winning artist Budjerah.
The 21-year-old singer-songwriter recently reached new audiences when he toured with British pop star Ed Sheeran.
Actor Rodger Corser and television presenter Sylvia Jeffreys are set to MC the gala, which will be addressed by CEO Alan Joyce.
He will be joined by Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and the airline's executive team, plus former chief executive Geoff Dixon and ex-chairmen Leigh Clifford and Margaret Jackson.
The budget for the party is also being closely guarded, although there is no question Qantas can afford such a glamorous do.
The carrier clocked a record half-year profit in the six months to December 31 of $1.43bn. Qantas last formal affair in 2015 was attended by John Travolta and his wife, the late Kelly Preston, supermodels Miranda Kerr and Jess Hart, and singer Ronan Keating. Bernard Fanning and Tina Arena serenaded the crowd, who were welcomed into the cavernous hangar by aerial acrobats.
On Thursday, a Qantas insider revealed the most asked question by invitees was "would Travolta return?"
A long-time ambassador of the airline and qualified pilot, Travolta was expected to attend a memorial for his former co-star Olivia Newton-John in Melbourne last month but failed to appear.
He has kept a low profile since breaking down at the Oscars, while paying tribute to Dame Olivia.
Kelly Preston, 57, lost her battle with breast cancer in July 2020. She and Travolta were married for 28-years.
THE AUSTRALIAN
Or is it just that they're afraid that Tubby Ward might tell some home truths about the leadership post his tenure?
Thread Starter
United Airlines is planning to grow its service to Australia and New Zealand later this year, the carrier’s latest bet that travelers will continue to book international trips.
The expansion to 66 weekly flights between the U.S. and the two countries amounts to a 40% increase in flights from last year, the carrier said Tuesday. The schedule also equates to about 75% more seats to those countries than the same season of 2019, United said.
The new schedule includes nonstop flights between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting Dec. 1, and from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, on a 787-9 on Oct. 28. United is also building up service from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia, and it is using its largest plane to fly between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia
This is what happens when you don’t have the aircraft to service markets due to an airline been run for short term outlook to boost executive returns. Qantas once the dominant carrier across the Pacific is about to be swamped and IMO once this is lost they will never get it back. You don’t need a long neck and feathers to be a goose do you.
The expansion to 66 weekly flights between the U.S. and the two countries amounts to a 40% increase in flights from last year, the carrier said Tuesday. The schedule also equates to about 75% more seats to those countries than the same season of 2019, United said.
The new schedule includes nonstop flights between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting Dec. 1, and from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, on a 787-9 on Oct. 28. United is also building up service from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia, and it is using its largest plane to fly between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia
This is what happens when you don’t have the aircraft to service markets due to an airline been run for short term outlook to boost executive returns. Qantas once the dominant carrier across the Pacific is about to be swamped and IMO once this is lost they will never get it back. You don’t need a long neck and feathers to be a goose do you.
United Airlines is planning to grow its service to Australia and New Zealand later this year, the carrier’s latest bet that travelers will continue to book international trips.
The expansion to 66 weekly flights between the U.S. and the two countries amounts to a 40% increase in flights from last year, the carrier said Tuesday. The schedule also equates to about 75% more seats to those countries than the same season of 2019, United said.
The new schedule includes nonstop flights between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting Dec. 1, and from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, on a 787-9 on Oct. 28. United is also building up service from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia, and it is using its largest plane to fly between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia
This is what happens when you don’t have the aircraft to service markets due to an airline been run for short term outlook to boost executive returns. Qantas once the dominant carrier across the Pacific is about to be swamped and IMO once this is lost they will never get it back. You don’t need a long neck and feathers to be a goose do you
The expansion to 66 weekly flights between the U.S. and the two countries amounts to a 40% increase in flights from last year, the carrier said Tuesday. The schedule also equates to about 75% more seats to those countries than the same season of 2019, United said.
The new schedule includes nonstop flights between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting Dec. 1, and from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, on a 787-9 on Oct. 28. United is also building up service from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia, and it is using its largest plane to fly between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia
This is what happens when you don’t have the aircraft to service markets due to an airline been run for short term outlook to boost executive returns. Qantas once the dominant carrier across the Pacific is about to be swamped and IMO once this is lost they will never get it back. You don’t need a long neck and feathers to be a goose do you
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It would be interesting to know what the ceo at UA gets in the way of renumeration.
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