New QF Chairman of the Board.
Thread Starter
I think he is in for one hell of a shock if he ever talks to the staff at the coal face.
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Sounds like a “like for like” swap after reading this unfortunately.
https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p5ecwz.html
https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p5ecwz.html
Continue to excel
short flights long nights
Sounds like a “like for like” swap after reading this unfortunately.
https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p5ecwz.html
https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...17-p5ecwz.html
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From an interview for Intelligent Investor:
“Now you had 10 years at TNT/Ansett through until 1994, when you left as Chief Operating Officer. You must have actually been in the thick of it with working for Peter Abeles and I guess, joint ventures with Rupert Murdoch. Did you get to know all those key players back in that journey?
I certainly did. It was an extraordinary education and a fantastic time. I learnt so much about life and business. Peter Abeles was a remarkable man whom I had nothing but the highest regard. I met Rupert Murdoch but he wouldn't remember. Certainly, the time with Sir Peter and those early building days of TNT as it went global was a real adventure. It was a fantastic time.”
“Now you had 10 years at TNT/Ansett through until 1994, when you left as Chief Operating Officer. You must have actually been in the thick of it with working for Peter Abeles and I guess, joint ventures with Rupert Murdoch. Did you get to know all those key players back in that journey?
I certainly did. It was an extraordinary education and a fantastic time. I learnt so much about life and business. Peter Abeles was a remarkable man whom I had nothing but the highest regard. I met Rupert Murdoch but he wouldn't remember. Certainly, the time with Sir Peter and those early building days of TNT as it went global was a real adventure. It was a fantastic time.”
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I think Mr Mullen might have had a few too many in the Chairman's Lounge if he really believes that cr@p.
He obviously believes in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny if he really thinks that the current Qantas sh1tshow represents '...one of the world's very best airlines...'.
FFS.
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So I put my mate on category E and we took a trip to Japan on QF. He has politely informed me that its ok to take him off and nominate someone else, as after experiencing the QF offering, his preference will be to pay full fare on ANA or JAL going forward.
There's a bit of work to be done and it's gonna take a while.
It's kind of embarrassing that mullen seems to think QF is currently/continuing to excel.
There's a bit of work to be done and it's gonna take a while.
It's kind of embarrassing that mullen seems to think QF is currently/continuing to excel.
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Qantas’ chair must revamp the airline’s tired, profit-hungry strategy
Amid falling profits, pilot strikes and an eroded public reputation, Qantas' new chair has a big job on his hands.MICHAEL SAINSBURY
FEB 23, 2024
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INCOMING QANTAS CHAIR JOHN MULLEN (IMAGE: AAP/LUKAS COCH)Boy, does newly selected Qantas chairman John Mullen have a job on his hands when he eventually takes charge in July. Former CEO Alan Joyce’s strategy (with a complicit board) was to run the joint like a private equity buccaneer: selling off assets, outsourcing, squeezing capital expenditure and slicing, dicing and driving down real wages for its most essential workers.
But such things cannot last, most especially in sectors like airlines, which are both capital intensive and customer focused. Joyce’s successor Vanessa Hudson is now beginning to pick up the pieces, but there was a pile of evidence to show just exactly what a **** sandwich Joyce left behind. At least it won’t have come as a surprise, as she had been his sous-chef and chief bean counter.
Falling profits
The hard bottom line is that Qantas profits were down 13% on the same period last year at a $1.25 billion half-year pre-tax profit. That was 40% higher than the last half-year trading period before the pandemic, but much-needed investment in new aircraft is finally coming home to roost.Net capital expenditure is climbing as Qantas must spend $3-3.2 billion this year and at least double the last pre-COVID year, mainly on new aircraft. At the same time, aircraft deliveries — including A321XLRs and A350s — are running late. And in a world where pretty much every carrier is screaming for planes, this is likely to continue.
While the results were predicted by market analysts, stock market punters fled anyway, collecting their winnings while they could. This sent the company’s share down almost 7% to $5.21, well off its post-COVID high last April of $6.62 and despite yet another buyback of $400 million to go on top of last half-year’s $500 million.
Investors are clearly no longer swallowing this lazy, capital-starving method of boosting the stock price that transfers wealth from customers to shareholders, and they know it is damaging the airline’s balance sheet (increasing the liabilities over assets), leaving Qantas increasingly less protected from any future shocks. Perhaps the board is confident that the federal government will continue to prop up the company in the face of any financial crisis. Having helped steer Telstra through the government-created post-NBN mire, Mullen may not be so certain.
Yet some things stay relentlessly the same and herein lies the problem for Hudson. She is continuing to try and screw the only front-line workers — pilots, maintenance engineers and cabin crew (well most of them) — left after Joyce’s heady COVID-era redundancy and outsourcing spree that saw the company found guilty in the High Court of illegal sackings.
Bargaining deals
Earlier this week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was having a moment in the sun as the wage price index climbed 4.2% during 2023, the fastest growth since 2018. Yet Qantas is insisting on a two-year wage freeze and a rise of 3% thereafter in an environment where inflation remains over 4%.Pilots in Western Australia have paused strike action this weekend due to expected extreme weather, but they remain resolute, as underscored by an 80% no-confidence vote in local management this week in a union survey, and with strikes to resume next Wednesday.
Major enterprise bargaining deals with pilots who fly the company’s mainline red-tail aircraft are now in early stages. Outsourced ground staff companies Dnata and Menzies are also pushing for a better deal from Qantas as its own staff costs have soared, insiders told Crikey. Oil prices are also on the rise once more. A promise to spend $230 million on improving customer service and its frequent flyer service was inadequate, especially in the face of continuing pilot and engineer shortages and bare-bones ground staff, insiders said.
Qantas’ 65% or so of Australia’s domestic market is the main reason for Hudson’s upbeat commentary, as there is a far flatter outlook for the sector globally and it was evident in the poor performance of Qantas’ international business. As has been noted, its European business is largely outsourced to Emirates in a massive codeshare operation. Qantas only flies daily to London and less regularly to Paris and Rome.
Asian carriers are increasing their frequency weekly — Korea’s Asiana is just the latest — providing more competition both to Europe and North Asia, and the well-regarded Turkish Airlines is finally beginning flights. But it is on the Pacific routes Qantas dominated less than a decade ago that its troubles are worse. Pilots said passenger loads were “as bad as I have seen them”, according to one who spoke to Crikey. US carriers, especially United Airlines, have increased flight frequency and are exclusively using more modern aircraft (B787, A350) whose fuel requirements are a third of the Qantas A380s it uses in tandem with B787s on US routes.
Much will depend on Mullen who will succeed Richard Goyder in October after joining the board in July, though why not immediately is testimony to the power of Australia’s tight-knit directors club. Mullen of course is a member, and while he has logistics experience, like Goyder before him, he has none in the unique world of airlines.
The same can be said of the other new director so far unveiled, Nora Scheinkestel, who comes out of financial services and has been on many of the same boards as Mullen, such as Brambles and Telstra. At least their hands are clean of the Joyce era and Hudson’s cosy appointment.
Mullen’s biggest job is to set a new strategy — because the old one, like too many Qantas planes, has reached its use-by date
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imagine removing all the duplicate's exec managers admin staff IT support safety department's etc etc etc for all the different business unit's all the cost saving's not to mention all the complications of working between departments of the same company, and then there are ceos of everything including ceo of ceo's
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Out with the old & in with the old! Absolutely NOTHING will change. Just moving the chairs around on the deck of the Titanic.
Last edited by LivingtheDream46; 23rd Feb 2024 at 05:22.
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short flights long nights
I will say this again. It amazes me how, for years, we all on here could see what Joyce was doing to the once great Qantas. But now, it’s only after he has gone…it appears all the high high payed individuals are waking up and saying..”WTF happened?”. I really don’t get it.
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Was the same over at Virgin. You basically wait until the place collapses until you do something.
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Until then, Alan was genius and the best CEO in the country for his ability to relentlessly drive down costs.
The following 3 users liked this post by C441:
Best CEO in Australia by a country mile. I wonder if that’s a $275 off your power bill moment for Goyder.