Joyce ‘retires’ early 👍
It doesn’t matter how you polish a turd, it’s still a turd.
I just can’t see how the CFO can possibly keep the new position of CEO after being the CFO during the entire debacle of the airline slipping to the place it is today.
Emus (or is it Ostrich's?) bury their head in the sand, that could be rather apt adaption of the QF board.
What’s well and truly clear now is that there will be no 🧹 going through the new management set up.
Good luck and I for one hope such an iconic airline can get back to the level of respect. Sheesh I remember being stuck overseas in the 90’s by a foreign airline, when QF was put on to help us all home the cheers (no doubt they were paid but still…). Now I think it would be will they turn up? Can I have QR instead!
I just can’t see how the CFO can possibly keep the new position of CEO after being the CFO during the entire debacle of the airline slipping to the place it is today.
Emus (or is it Ostrich's?) bury their head in the sand, that could be rather apt adaption of the QF board.
What’s well and truly clear now is that there will be no 🧹 going through the new management set up.
Good luck and I for one hope such an iconic airline can get back to the level of respect. Sheesh I remember being stuck overseas in the 90’s by a foreign airline, when QF was put on to help us all home the cheers (no doubt they were paid but still…). Now I think it would be will they turn up? Can I have QR instead!
V-Jet said at #334:
V-Jet is 1,000% correct, and ‘they’ absolutely don’t have a clue about what they’ve done, because they appear to have been preoccupied with how much money they can make for themselves out of the business rather than concentrating on not pissing off customers, providing excellent service, looking after staff, and maintaining a stellar reputation.
What astounds me is Goyder’s incurious and myopic perception of events that have led to the crisis at Qantas, and which are totally divorced from the reality that the Board’s ineptitude and wilful blindness to what was happening seems to have largely contributed to those problems.
And all that the half-arsed disingenuous ‘Sorry’ and ‘We’re working hard to fix things’ is doing is, as Global Aviator says, polishing the turd, and not addressing WHY or HOW things were so comprehensively trashed in the first place.
The reality is that ‘they’ should stop making empty apologies and start to focus on fixing what’s broken, rather than just concentrating on how much they can enrich themselves and get away with it.
The problem is, I don't think 'they' have a clue about what they've actually done. I think 'they' have been so focused on making changes on spreadsheets that they've forgotten what Qantas actually is. Or was. That's why they can tell everyone that they are sorry and will fix the customer experience. The customer experience is the result of everything else (that 'they've' wrecked) not the beginning.
What astounds me is Goyder’s incurious and myopic perception of events that have led to the crisis at Qantas, and which are totally divorced from the reality that the Board’s ineptitude and wilful blindness to what was happening seems to have largely contributed to those problems.
And all that the half-arsed disingenuous ‘Sorry’ and ‘We’re working hard to fix things’ is doing is, as Global Aviator says, polishing the turd, and not addressing WHY or HOW things were so comprehensively trashed in the first place.
The reality is that ‘they’ should stop making empty apologies and start to focus on fixing what’s broken, rather than just concentrating on how much they can enrich themselves and get away with it.
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Preaching to the converted I know but as most reading this accept as part of their working day - how would you justify your actions in court?
And on this episode of ‘Air Crash Investigators’ we look at…
How would the management ‘team’ at Qf over the last 20 years (Joyce mastered the game but realistically he’s a Johnny come lately to the root cause) perform under the scrutiny of such an episode?
Consider that - for a minute - before most who are reading this have to justify their jobs in every single thing they do every minute they are at work. Aside from killing people (and lots of them - all at once) there are company manuals that would stack near meters high telling you how you must behave.
I haven’t seen any evidence in any single QF manual how it is acceptable for anyone to take company property to the tune of $120m and not suffer summary dismissal and criminal consequences.
As everyone knows - the entire management ‘team’ is equally to blame.
I’d take great delight in having the cash to spend on an ‘Air Crash Investigation’ into Qantas over the last 20 years… Even for home viewing it would be riveting.
^^^ ‘They’ don’t know what’s broken’. And when they might discover it (spelt out in almost millions of Engagement Surveys) they will not want to accept it because that involves undoing the very damage they caused. And that damage is SERIOUSLY expensive to fix. It took decades to build and ‘they’ trashed it in 20 years! Bonuses wont look so good and profits minimal - share price $2 etc etc. This is a serious ‘come to Jesus’ moment.
And on this episode of ‘Air Crash Investigators’ we look at…
How would the management ‘team’ at Qf over the last 20 years (Joyce mastered the game but realistically he’s a Johnny come lately to the root cause) perform under the scrutiny of such an episode?
Consider that - for a minute - before most who are reading this have to justify their jobs in every single thing they do every minute they are at work. Aside from killing people (and lots of them - all at once) there are company manuals that would stack near meters high telling you how you must behave.
I haven’t seen any evidence in any single QF manual how it is acceptable for anyone to take company property to the tune of $120m and not suffer summary dismissal and criminal consequences.
As everyone knows - the entire management ‘team’ is equally to blame.
I’d take great delight in having the cash to spend on an ‘Air Crash Investigation’ into Qantas over the last 20 years… Even for home viewing it would be riveting.
^^^ ‘They’ don’t know what’s broken’. And when they might discover it (spelt out in almost millions of Engagement Surveys) they will not want to accept it because that involves undoing the very damage they caused. And that damage is SERIOUSLY expensive to fix. It took decades to build and ‘they’ trashed it in 20 years! Bonuses wont look so good and profits minimal - share price $2 etc etc. This is a serious ‘come to Jesus’ moment.
The rot started with Dixon ( he walked away with $48 million) and then accelerated under Joyce who nearly got away with it. It is my belief that they need to cut their flying program by 10% until they get on top of all the aircraft problems.
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It is my belief that they need to cut their flying program by 10% until they get on top of all the aircraft problems.
It would help with the Engineering issues and the OTP/ delays/ cancellations etc and the flying public would understand how it immediately improves their chances of getting away on time. I think it is just one piece of the puzzle and people will wah on about market share etc but I think we’ve got bigger problems. Worrying about market share right now is like worrying about how far below optimum you are when you have a fuel leak.
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The hole they are in is very deep. They can’t get the last 2 380s back flying as no one has capacity to do the maintenance. They need at a guess 200 LAMEs where do you find them? The 787s are doing 17 hours a day which is unsustainable. Joyce’s motto was short term gain long term pain now’s it needs to be short term pain for long term gain.
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Why aren’t you guys on the board??
What is the point of ‘owning’ an airline when the people who ‘own’ it have no interest in airlines?
You lose the purpose of why you are in business (millennial speak ‘Mission Statement’) and the rest falls apart very quickly.
Nothing ‘they’ haven’t been told since Jimmie Bow Tie….
What is the point of ‘owning’ an airline when the people who ‘own’ it have no interest in airlines?
You lose the purpose of why you are in business (millennial speak ‘Mission Statement’) and the rest falls apart very quickly.
Nothing ‘they’ haven’t been told since Jimmie Bow Tie….
At the next town hall someone needs to stand up when they hand the microphone around and ask:
”Why are we limited to a pay rise of only 3% but management are allowed as much as they like?”
Anyone brave enough?
”Why are we limited to a pay rise of only 3% but management are allowed as much as they like?”
Anyone brave enough?
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Not trying to beat my chest but I did just that to an airline CEO a few moons ago, hang on I ended up leaving 🤣. Mind you I didn’t have union protection.
The point here is that the pilot body shouldn’t have to stand up, it should be a union rep with a set to start it off. If I was paying my hard earned slap dash to a union I’d certainly be pushing for a ****e load more than what I can see they do.
Now has NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO IMPROVE t’s & c’s. Pilots have time but Aussie airlines don’t, wait until China start the rockstar contracts again.
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I’ve not looked at this long but in my experience pay rises are a consequence of being pissed off. You’re angry, you want more money to compensate. Inversely - people do more for less if they are happy. As they were in fu7k tons in the ‘Pre Dixon’ era.
If I were able to make a point at a public platform I’d pick a couple of particular issues (and as we all know there are lots of them) that cause a problem.
Maybe preface it by saying ‘You’re going to expect me to ask for money - because in your world that solves all your problems. I’m more down to earth and rather than money, I’d like a solution to THIS problem. Customers I feel responsible for were frothing angry at xxx and I did xxx to try to help them. This is what I see as solution - how can you help me do my job by fixing this NOW….’
If I were able to make a point at a public platform I’d pick a couple of particular issues (and as we all know there are lots of them) that cause a problem.
Maybe preface it by saying ‘You’re going to expect me to ask for money - because in your world that solves all your problems. I’m more down to earth and rather than money, I’d like a solution to THIS problem. Customers I feel responsible for were frothing angry at xxx and I did xxx to try to help them. This is what I see as solution - how can you help me do my job by fixing this NOW….’
He started outsourcing, he started paying executives (starting with himself) millions of dollars per annum, he treated older Qantas staff like they were crap and brought in cronies from his TAA days who did dumb things like moving the ops to T4 at LHR when 90% of in and out traffic was transfers to T2 and T1 (why? because he'd gotten rid of all the international expertise) and a host of other things, cost millions and had to be put back to how it was within a few years, one of the cronies had to resign for sending company work to their own consultancy. Thankfully the BA people on the board had some influence and we ended up with QUBE, not that excuse for a system, the toy LDP and TAARSAN.
He wanted the name of the company changed to something else. He brought Dixon in, Dixon brought Joyce in.
No, the rot started with Mr bow tie.
I remember shortly after he started, a delay with a braking system problem, and it took a day to solve because under Mr Bow Tie, the brakes and wheel servicing had been outsourced and, happy to be corrected on this, I believe that included selling the items themselves.
Under him, Sydney Airport got a GM who allegedly sat at his desk with barefeet in a sandbox in his office and wanted to start meetings with a singalong.
No matter what anyone thought of older Qantas management, if you'd suggested anything like that, they'd throw you out of the building.
With all due respect to the misfortune of departing early from this earth, no one deserves that and I wouldn't have wished it upon even him, but there was more than a grain of truth in the joke that went around in the latter half of the 1990s "What have Qantas and McDonald's got in common?" Answer, "both run by a clown with a bow tie".
It saddens me that there were so many pioneering executives that were part of Qantas, many CEOs through the 70s and 80s and who gets their name on an aeroplane? No Ron Yates, no Bert Richie, guess who?
What I'd say about Dixon and Joyce is that the line had been pushed so far by their immediate predecessor where nothing was sacred any more that they were able to just step over it without anyone noticing - the proverbial frog in the boiling water.
Sack the board, put John F (Tubby) Ward in as Chair if he wants it, let him pick the rest of the board and the CEO. Let the company's direction and repair be under the influence of someone who was probably the last CEO who 'loved' the company and was quite happy to be paid a 'mere' $250K per annum.
AND, let's adopt the German idea of making it mandatory to have an employee on the Board of Directors. Seems to work wonderfully well there.
Last edited by AerialPerspective; 24th Sep 2023 at 13:37.
The hole they are in is very deep. They can’t get the last 2 380s back flying as no one has capacity to do the maintenance. They need at a guess 200 LAMEs where do you find them? The 787s are doing 17 hours a day which is unsustainable. Joyce’s motto was short term gain long term pain now’s it needs to be short term pain for long term gain.
Compared to pre covid 1/3 of 380 fleet is gone as of right now?
Although there are a few more 787's, apart from 4 less 380's there are also 6 less 744's & from past history just because there are 8 380's it doesnt mean they are all available due to them being very labour intensive.
I wonder if they have asked or contacted any of the Lame's that departed the company if they would come back even if only short term.
I am led to believe there are 2 of those guys over in LAX right now trying to sort the place out.
They had 12 x 380s 2 were scrapped but they decided to late that they wanted to fly them. 8 are flying and yes 2 are waiting for maintenance.Rear Window 
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New Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson released a hostage video on Friday morning, admitting to customers that “I know that we have let you down in many ways and for that I am sorry. We haven’t delivered the way we should have and we’ve often been hard to deal with … We understand we need to earn your trust back not with what we say but what we do and how we behave.”
The only thing missing was a stirring soundtrack – perhaps a cutaway shot of the Qantas board in Napisan-white tunics singing in falsetto at the summit of a dusty gorge. As crisis management productions go, it’s a deep fake.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson. Edwina Pickles Chief among the manifold issues with Hudson’s fresh, remorseful vibe was that in the same 24-hour period, her chairman, Richard Goyder, broadcast his own alternative script, designed not to win back customers but to defend his appalling record – the one Hudson was, er, apologising for.
“In terms of decisions made at the time and appropriate governance oversight, I think compared to almost any airline in the world Qantas has done a pretty good job,” Goyder told ABC Radio on Thursday. “I’d certainly reject the notion that [this] is a rolling crisis.” Crisis? What crisis?! Goyder is now channelling Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun, insisting “Nothing to see here, please disperse!”
“The one thing I think we would have done differently … would have been to be more modest in our ambitions as borders opened up,” Goyder continued. “I think, in hindsight, we tried to come out of the COVID lockdowns too rapidly, and that was probably a combination of us wanting to get [our] people back to work [and] us wanting to get our customers to places that they hadn’t been able to get to as borders reopened.”
This is a variation on the classic job interview humblebrag, “My biggest weakness is that I try too hard.” Goyder is seriously claiming that Qantas’ principal error of the past 18 months was being too altruistic, too community minded! He isn’t just floating above the rest of us now, he’s occupying an alternative world.
Reopening too ambitiously, that’s really the one thing he’d do differently?! Not attempting to steal $500 million from customers via irredeemable COVID-19 travel credits then dissembling about it? Not handing young Nathan Albanese a membership to the Chairman’s Lounge or unduly influencing Australian governments? Not letting Alan Joyce sell 90 per cent of his Qantas shares for no good reason? Certainly not sacking 1700 people unlawfully!
“We regret the impact that it had on the 1700 people,” Goyder conceded, but smartly added: “The courts actually held that we had sound commercial reasons for making that decision.”
Qantas lost in the first instance, lost on first appeal then lost unanimously in the High Court, all after the company’s longstanding industrial relations adviser, Ian Oldmeadow, had warned that the mass compulsory redundancies (while in receipt of JobKeeper) was a manoeuvre fraught with risk.
An army of Freehills lawyers prepared for the sackings, designing an exotic legal instrument of delegation to synthetically erase Joyce from the decision and shield him from its repercussions. It was a farcical construction, antithetical to everything Qantas claims to require in “ethical decision-making”.
Goyder is unable to imagine a world in which Qantas could’ve had its cake and eaten it too, where it returned employees to work, provided its customers with a safe and reliable service without trying to steal from them, didn’t improperly capture policymakers and still generated strong returns for its shareholders.
Richard’s been having his cake and simultaneously guzzling on it for his entire corporate career. An ethical organisation can do exactly the same. That’s the bit he still can’t seem to comprehend.
The latest read he’s got! We think he means the latest hot take.
He speaks like a new arrival. “I’m getting straight to work!” What’s Goyder been doing for the past five years? Certainly not the necessary work of proper oversight. He dismissed every single warning about the company’s direction and culture under Joyce, defiantly endorsing him as “the best CEO in Australia by the length of a straight”.
Hudson says, quite correctly, that the task of reputational repair hinges not on what Qantas says but what it does. And what is the single thing Goyder has done, besides reading aloud from his scroll of pathetic excuses?
He docked Joyce’s $24 million pay in 2023 by a grand total of $437,000, or 1.8 per cent of his actual remuneration outcome. That is the extent of his penalty for leaving Qantas in a nosedive – barely a new dunny in his Rocks penthouse. Joyce might also lose his $2.1 million short-term bonus, which has been deferred, but we seriously doubt it. Would you really count on Richard Goyder doing that to Alan Joyce?
The Qantas board has already declined to claw back any of Joyce’s shares over the High Court’s finding of illegality, or for exposing shareholders to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and compensation. So why would anyone believe the board will act any differently in the future over the ACCC matter?
Goyder is making an enormous show of penalising Joyce while actually paying him almost his maximum entitlements, pushed back to July 1 next year. Pending us forgetting. Pending this silly kerfuffle blowing over. No one’s buying it.
He is ignoring the repeated public expressions of disquiet from the largest cohort of his shareholder base, the industry superannuation and public sector funds that control more than 20 per cent of Qantas shares. Uncle Rich will be thinking he can just sling the cranky investors a couple of grand final tickets, or maybe a Chairman’s Lounge membership. It’s never not worked before!
Goyder retains the confidence of shareholders and the board just like every AFL coach does right before they’re sacked. Who are all of these supportive investors and where are they hiding? Not one Qantas shareholder has spoken out in support of Goyder, to align themselves with his bizarre remoteness from the company’s self-injuries or to endorse the recent governance of the company.
Then, Monday, October 2, is Goyder’s own Mad Monday. He’s invited Qantas shareholders to meet him at JPMorgan’s Melbourne office at 101 Collins Street, like he’s a visiting Hollywood A-lister. Book an audience with the great man!
A public company chairman – let alone one bleeding out in the last chance saloon – would always call on his institutional investors at their own offices. Humility, like satire, has its limits.
In the airline industry, every accident is dissected. The “black box”, an Australian invention, records a multitude of flight data and everything that’s said in the cockpit so everyone can understand what’s gone wrong, correct equipment errors and learn from human mistakes.
Hudson prefers talking about the crash in euphemistic terms. She’s saying “We were a bit tough to deal with, we had a few delays” but she certainly isn’t saying “We flagrantly broke the law and we tried to steal half a billion dollars from you”.
Her chairman, meanwhile, doesn’t even think there’s been an accident. He’s a tailspin of justifications – we reopened too fast, we tried too hard, we had sound commercial reasons, we did a pretty good job. But I’m humble, can’t you see? Try my ravishing humility cologne!
His jarring denialism stands between Hudson and her customer reset. She won’t get clear air as long as Goyder’s still sitting in the cabin gaslighting the passengers, blowing his fumes of delusion up and down the aisle.
Don’t open the black box! Let’s lock it in a Faraday cage and park it in the Mojave Desert, deep in the aircraft boneyard. Let’s cover it in Richard’s magic invisibility cloak! Goyder wants shareholders to believe he wasn’t there whereas shareholders just want him to disappear
Richard Goyder calls off search for Qantas’ black box
Joe AstonColumnistSep 24, 2023 – 7.30pmSave
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New Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson released a hostage video on Friday morning, admitting to customers that “I know that we have let you down in many ways and for that I am sorry. We haven’t delivered the way we should have and we’ve often been hard to deal with … We understand we need to earn your trust back not with what we say but what we do and how we behave.”
The only thing missing was a stirring soundtrack – perhaps a cutaway shot of the Qantas board in Napisan-white tunics singing in falsetto at the summit of a dusty gorge. As crisis management productions go, it’s a deep fake.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson. Edwina Pickles Chief among the manifold issues with Hudson’s fresh, remorseful vibe was that in the same 24-hour period, her chairman, Richard Goyder, broadcast his own alternative script, designed not to win back customers but to defend his appalling record – the one Hudson was, er, apologising for.“In terms of decisions made at the time and appropriate governance oversight, I think compared to almost any airline in the world Qantas has done a pretty good job,” Goyder told ABC Radio on Thursday. “I’d certainly reject the notion that [this] is a rolling crisis.” Crisis? What crisis?! Goyder is now channelling Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun, insisting “Nothing to see here, please disperse!”
“The one thing I think we would have done differently … would have been to be more modest in our ambitions as borders opened up,” Goyder continued. “I think, in hindsight, we tried to come out of the COVID lockdowns too rapidly, and that was probably a combination of us wanting to get [our] people back to work [and] us wanting to get our customers to places that they hadn’t been able to get to as borders reopened.”
This is a variation on the classic job interview humblebrag, “My biggest weakness is that I try too hard.” Goyder is seriously claiming that Qantas’ principal error of the past 18 months was being too altruistic, too community minded! He isn’t just floating above the rest of us now, he’s occupying an alternative world.
Reopening too ambitiously, that’s really the one thing he’d do differently?! Not attempting to steal $500 million from customers via irredeemable COVID-19 travel credits then dissembling about it? Not handing young Nathan Albanese a membership to the Chairman’s Lounge or unduly influencing Australian governments? Not letting Alan Joyce sell 90 per cent of his Qantas shares for no good reason? Certainly not sacking 1700 people unlawfully!
“We regret the impact that it had on the 1700 people,” Goyder conceded, but smartly added: “The courts actually held that we had sound commercial reasons for making that decision.”
A farcical construction
Don’t you love it when Uncle Rich wears his brain on the outside? We’re sorry about the human consequences of our illegal conduct, but we had sound commercial reasons for breaking the law. What is he talking about?! The only sound commercial reason for doing something illegal is that you consider illegality and its consequences to be just another cost of doing business. That’s the rotten culture and mindset Goyder has presided over.Qantas lost in the first instance, lost on first appeal then lost unanimously in the High Court, all after the company’s longstanding industrial relations adviser, Ian Oldmeadow, had warned that the mass compulsory redundancies (while in receipt of JobKeeper) was a manoeuvre fraught with risk.
An army of Freehills lawyers prepared for the sackings, designing an exotic legal instrument of delegation to synthetically erase Joyce from the decision and shield him from its repercussions. It was a farcical construction, antithetical to everything Qantas claims to require in “ethical decision-making”.
Goyder is unable to imagine a world in which Qantas could’ve had its cake and eaten it too, where it returned employees to work, provided its customers with a safe and reliable service without trying to steal from them, didn’t improperly capture policymakers and still generated strong returns for its shareholders.
Richard’s been having his cake and simultaneously guzzling on it for his entire corporate career. An ethical organisation can do exactly the same. That’s the bit he still can’t seem to comprehend.
‘I’m getting straight to work’
Goyder claims that unnamed Qantas shareholders “are very supportive of the work we’re doing now … and certainly of me. The latest read I’ve got on that is that people want me to continue to do the role.” He said: “While I retain that confidence, I’ll get to work and do the things we need to do.”The latest read he’s got! We think he means the latest hot take.
He speaks like a new arrival. “I’m getting straight to work!” What’s Goyder been doing for the past five years? Certainly not the necessary work of proper oversight. He dismissed every single warning about the company’s direction and culture under Joyce, defiantly endorsing him as “the best CEO in Australia by the length of a straight”.
Hudson says, quite correctly, that the task of reputational repair hinges not on what Qantas says but what it does. And what is the single thing Goyder has done, besides reading aloud from his scroll of pathetic excuses?
He docked Joyce’s $24 million pay in 2023 by a grand total of $437,000, or 1.8 per cent of his actual remuneration outcome. That is the extent of his penalty for leaving Qantas in a nosedive – barely a new dunny in his Rocks penthouse. Joyce might also lose his $2.1 million short-term bonus, which has been deferred, but we seriously doubt it. Would you really count on Richard Goyder doing that to Alan Joyce?
Why act differently now?
Goyder claimed grandly that $8.3 million of Joyce’s 2023 pay “is subject to clawback should the board determine that necessary”, but let’s be real here. Clawback is only triggered by “serious misconduct, breach of obligations to the [company] or material misstatements in Qantas’ financial statements”. None of what has occurred will meet those definitions, especially because Qantas will inevitably settle with the ACCC over its 8000 ghost flights on a no admission basis.The Qantas board has already declined to claw back any of Joyce’s shares over the High Court’s finding of illegality, or for exposing shareholders to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and compensation. So why would anyone believe the board will act any differently in the future over the ACCC matter?
Goyder is making an enormous show of penalising Joyce while actually paying him almost his maximum entitlements, pushed back to July 1 next year. Pending us forgetting. Pending this silly kerfuffle blowing over. No one’s buying it.
He is ignoring the repeated public expressions of disquiet from the largest cohort of his shareholder base, the industry superannuation and public sector funds that control more than 20 per cent of Qantas shares. Uncle Rich will be thinking he can just sling the cranky investors a couple of grand final tickets, or maybe a Chairman’s Lounge membership. It’s never not worked before!
Goyder retains the confidence of shareholders and the board just like every AFL coach does right before they’re sacked. Who are all of these supportive investors and where are they hiding? Not one Qantas shareholder has spoken out in support of Goyder, to align themselves with his bizarre remoteness from the company’s self-injuries or to endorse the recent governance of the company.
Humility has its limits
Goyder and Hudson will face a public Senate hearing on Wednesday in Canberra. Goyder may be able to explain docking $550,000 and withholding $2.1 million of Alan Joyce’s $24 million pay packet to proxy advisers and investment managers but good luck selling that to a panel of plain-speaking politicians highly attuned to their constituents’ visceral loathing of Qantas.Then, Monday, October 2, is Goyder’s own Mad Monday. He’s invited Qantas shareholders to meet him at JPMorgan’s Melbourne office at 101 Collins Street, like he’s a visiting Hollywood A-lister. Book an audience with the great man!
A public company chairman – let alone one bleeding out in the last chance saloon – would always call on his institutional investors at their own offices. Humility, like satire, has its limits.
In the airline industry, every accident is dissected. The “black box”, an Australian invention, records a multitude of flight data and everything that’s said in the cockpit so everyone can understand what’s gone wrong, correct equipment errors and learn from human mistakes.
Hudson prefers talking about the crash in euphemistic terms. She’s saying “We were a bit tough to deal with, we had a few delays” but she certainly isn’t saying “We flagrantly broke the law and we tried to steal half a billion dollars from you”.
Her chairman, meanwhile, doesn’t even think there’s been an accident. He’s a tailspin of justifications – we reopened too fast, we tried too hard, we had sound commercial reasons, we did a pretty good job. But I’m humble, can’t you see? Try my ravishing humility cologne!
His jarring denialism stands between Hudson and her customer reset. She won’t get clear air as long as Goyder’s still sitting in the cabin gaslighting the passengers, blowing his fumes of delusion up and down the aisle.
Don’t open the black box! Let’s lock it in a Faraday cage and park it in the Mojave Desert, deep in the aircraft boneyard. Let’s cover it in Richard’s magic invisibility cloak! Goyder wants shareholders to believe he wasn’t there whereas shareholders just want him to disappear
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[T]he rot started with the fellow wearing the bow tie.
And don’t forget: AJ was awarded an AC, Australia’s highest honour (unless some monarchist gets back in and is inclined to make AJ a knight…).
When will they learn?
Qantas’ market update released on Monday morning reveals the business is currently absorbing the fuel hike – which will amount to an expected $200 million increase over the first half of the financial year – but may look to offset some of the costs through airfares if the trend continues.
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson apologised to customers on Friday and promised to overhaul “outdated” policies.CREDIT: EDWINA PICKLES “Any changes would look to balance the recovery of higher costs with the importance of affordable travel in an environment where fares are already elevated,” Qantas told the Australian Securities Exchange.
“The Group will continue to absorb these higher costs, but will monitor fuel prices in the weeks ahead and, if current levels are sustained, will look to adjust its settings.”
Qantas can “adjust its settings” in one of two ways: by increasing existing ticket prices on all services or lowering the number of flights, which in turn pushes up prices.
Qantas now expects its fuel bill to grow to $2.8 billion for the first half of the financial year, after wearing a 10 per cent increase this month. Overall, its fuel costs are 30 per cent higher than in May, due to higher oil prices and refiner margins coupled with the lower Australian dollar.
It’s also expecting a further $50 million impact due to foreign exchange rate changes unrelated to fuel.
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson issued a mea culpa to customers on Friday, and gave her first interview since being unexpectedly elevated to the position two months early after the shock departure of Alan Joyce.“We recognise Qantas has not been where it needs to be for a long time,” Hudson said last week.
“I was a part of the leadership at the time, but clearly I wasn’t the chief executive then. I am the chief executive now and what I would say is that I would like to be judged by what we do now and how we behave going forward.”
Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar expect to carry more than four million passengers over the September school holidays, an increase on last year.CREDIT: JAMES DAVIES Hudson unveiled a swathe of initiatives aimed at restoring customer faith in the battered business, which has had a bruising month since it announced a record underlying profit of $2.47 billion.
Qantas on Monday said it had committed $80 million in customer improvements for the financial year, an increase to the $150 million previously invested. This investment will be funded from the business’s profits.
The financial commitment will help fund its contact centre revamp, the issuance of extra frequent-flyer points, and improve its in-flight catering. Qantas also said it wants to expedite pre-announced commitments including the re-platforming of its smartphone app.
The update revealed that trading conditions for Qantas this quarter mirror the same period in 2023, meaning its recently battered reputation has not reduced demand.
Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar expect to carry more than four million passengers over the September school holidays, which includes the football finals period, on almost 35,000 flights. This is an increase from 3.7 million passengers on 28,000 services over the same period last year.
Last week Hudson said it was important for the business to never take the loyalty of passengers for granted.
When announcing the airline’s financial results while she was chief financial officer last month, Hudson endorsed Joyce’s strategy for the group and said last year’s record profit was not as good as it gets for Qantas. Qantas said it was earning margins of 18 per cent for its domestic arm and up to 12 per cent for its international division at the time.
Qantas and rival carrier Virgin Australia have been accused of deliberately cancelling slots on in-demand routes to fend off competitors in recent weeks. Multiple industry members have been directly calling out Qantas for alleged slot hoarding during the ongoing Senate select committee into bilateral air service agreements. Play Video
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Qantas has withheld $2.2 million from former CEO Alan Joyce as the consumer watchdog investigates the selling of cancelled flights.
The most-cancelled route for Qantas is Sydney to Canberra, in which the airline cancelled close to 15 per cent of flights in August. Almost 10 per cent of flights were cancelled from Melbourne to Sydney over the month.
There are a host of reasons a flight may be cancelled such as poor weather conditions, staffing issues, Airservices Australia resourcing troubles, or other supply chain disruptions. Despite this, Qantas has been repeatedly accused of a disproportionate number of cancellations on key routes.
Canberra Airport boss Stephen Byron – who has been a vocal critic of Qantas – said he was sick of having to call the business out for their “blatant” slot hoarding and called it a “national disgrace”.
“The federal government cannot stand by and condone this any more,” Byron said while calling for Hudson to apologise for the ongoing disruptions by issuing a free flight to every customer on the Canberra to Sydney leg who has experienced a cancellation.
“She has to walk the talk, and she said she wanted to be judged by what she does. She needs to make it up to the customers.”
Qantas has long maintained that when faced with a disruption it will always choose to cancel flights on busy routes with regular flights to minimise disruption rather than cancel a flight on a route with less chance of re-accommodating passengers.
Qantas flags potential airfare hikes as fuel bill bites
By Amelia McGuire
September 25, 2023 Qantas Airways has told the market it may increase the price of fares if the cost of fuel remains elevated, three days after chief executive Vanessa Hudson asked for patience while she attempts to restore customer trust in the embattled business.Qantas’ market update released on Monday morning reveals the business is currently absorbing the fuel hike – which will amount to an expected $200 million increase over the first half of the financial year – but may look to offset some of the costs through airfares if the trend continues.
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson apologised to customers on Friday and promised to overhaul “outdated” policies.CREDIT: EDWINA PICKLES “Any changes would look to balance the recovery of higher costs with the importance of affordable travel in an environment where fares are already elevated,” Qantas told the Australian Securities Exchange.“The Group will continue to absorb these higher costs, but will monitor fuel prices in the weeks ahead and, if current levels are sustained, will look to adjust its settings.”
Qantas can “adjust its settings” in one of two ways: by increasing existing ticket prices on all services or lowering the number of flights, which in turn pushes up prices.
Qantas now expects its fuel bill to grow to $2.8 billion for the first half of the financial year, after wearing a 10 per cent increase this month. Overall, its fuel costs are 30 per cent higher than in May, due to higher oil prices and refiner margins coupled with the lower Australian dollar.
It’s also expecting a further $50 million impact due to foreign exchange rate changes unrelated to fuel.
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson issued a mea culpa to customers on Friday, and gave her first interview since being unexpectedly elevated to the position two months early after the shock departure of Alan Joyce.“We recognise Qantas has not been where it needs to be for a long time,” Hudson said last week.
“I was a part of the leadership at the time, but clearly I wasn’t the chief executive then. I am the chief executive now and what I would say is that I would like to be judged by what we do now and how we behave going forward.”
Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar expect to carry more than four million passengers over the September school holidays, an increase on last year.CREDIT: JAMES DAVIES Hudson unveiled a swathe of initiatives aimed at restoring customer faith in the battered business, which has had a bruising month since it announced a record underlying profit of $2.47 billion.Qantas on Monday said it had committed $80 million in customer improvements for the financial year, an increase to the $150 million previously invested. This investment will be funded from the business’s profits.
The financial commitment will help fund its contact centre revamp, the issuance of extra frequent-flyer points, and improve its in-flight catering. Qantas also said it wants to expedite pre-announced commitments including the re-platforming of its smartphone app.
The update revealed that trading conditions for Qantas this quarter mirror the same period in 2023, meaning its recently battered reputation has not reduced demand.
Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar expect to carry more than four million passengers over the September school holidays, which includes the football finals period, on almost 35,000 flights. This is an increase from 3.7 million passengers on 28,000 services over the same period last year.
Last week Hudson said it was important for the business to never take the loyalty of passengers for granted.
When announcing the airline’s financial results while she was chief financial officer last month, Hudson endorsed Joyce’s strategy for the group and said last year’s record profit was not as good as it gets for Qantas. Qantas said it was earning margins of 18 per cent for its domestic arm and up to 12 per cent for its international division at the time.
Qantas and rival carrier Virgin Australia have been accused of deliberately cancelling slots on in-demand routes to fend off competitors in recent weeks. Multiple industry members have been directly calling out Qantas for alleged slot hoarding during the ongoing Senate select committee into bilateral air service agreements. Play Video
Play video
1:08
Qantas withholds millions from former CEO Alan Joyce
Qantas has withheld $2.2 million from former CEO Alan Joyce as the consumer watchdog investigates the selling of cancelled flights.
The most-cancelled route for Qantas is Sydney to Canberra, in which the airline cancelled close to 15 per cent of flights in August. Almost 10 per cent of flights were cancelled from Melbourne to Sydney over the month.
There are a host of reasons a flight may be cancelled such as poor weather conditions, staffing issues, Airservices Australia resourcing troubles, or other supply chain disruptions. Despite this, Qantas has been repeatedly accused of a disproportionate number of cancellations on key routes.
Canberra Airport boss Stephen Byron – who has been a vocal critic of Qantas – said he was sick of having to call the business out for their “blatant” slot hoarding and called it a “national disgrace”.
“The federal government cannot stand by and condone this any more,” Byron said while calling for Hudson to apologise for the ongoing disruptions by issuing a free flight to every customer on the Canberra to Sydney leg who has experienced a cancellation.
“She has to walk the talk, and she said she wanted to be judged by what she does. She needs to make it up to the customers.”
Qantas has long maintained that when faced with a disruption it will always choose to cancel flights on busy routes with regular flights to minimise disruption rather than cancel a flight on a route with less chance of re-accommodating passengers.
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