Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will walk away from the top job months earlier than expected after weeks of public and regulatory pressure on the national carrier.
After 22 years with the airline, including 15 as its leader, today will be Joyce’s final day in the job, Qantas confirmed to the ASX in a statement today.
The airline has been plagued by a wave of bad press for months, including allegedly selling tickets on ghost flights, steep airfares, cancellation rates and flight credits.
“In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me that the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority,” Joyce said.
The shock development means Joyce will no longer be retiring in September.
Vanessa Hudson, the incoming boss set to fill Joyce’s boots, will now assume the role of managing director and group chief executive from tomorrow.
“The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement and hand over to Vanessa and the new management team now,” Joyce said.
Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder thanked Joyce for his service and leadership, but acknowledged the transition comes “at what is obviously a challenging time for Qantas”.
Those extremely damaging allegations appear to have made Joyce’s continuation as boss untenable.
Last week was a PR nightmare for the flying kangaroo.
It emerged Qantas Group was holding around $550 million in unused flight credits from cancelled flights during the pandemic which were due to expire in December.
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That total was around $150 million more than the group had made public, leading to intensifying criticism.
Just days later, on the same day the ACCC announced it was launching its court action, Qantas u-turned and said it was dropping the expiry date on flight credits.
During the pandemic, which was a hugely turbulent time for the global aviation sector, Qantas turned into a lightning rod for customer complaints.
Flight cancellations went through the roof, and wait times to the airline’s call centres, at its worst, breached the 10-hour mark.
‘You end up being too famous’: What led to Joyce’s early exit
Nine’s finance editor Chris Kohler says Joyce’s early departure comes on the back of successive PR blows to the airline, which recently handed down a bumper full-year profit.
“This is huge news. Joyce was going to stick around for another two months. His last day will be today,” Kohler said.
“This is as a result of the latest ACCC fiasco. The scandal was that they were allegedly selling thousands and thousands of tickets on flights, despite the fact that those flights had already been cancelled. So that is unconscionable conduct, according to the ACCC.
“This comes after Qantas and Joyce handed down a $2.5 billion profit for the year. They’re in huge, huge trouble and Joyce has fallen on his sword. Joyce has been there 15 years.
“It’s arguably too long. You end up being too famous. Now it’s all gone horribly wrong. That 15-year run has been pretty good for shareholders but not very good for customers.”
