TRANSCRIPT
In a video last week on flight credits, Alan Joyce made his final appearance as QANTAS CEO, reassuring customers the flying kangaroo's tailspin was being righted.
But five days later - Mr Joyce himself has departed.
"In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority," he said in a statement released to the A-S-X.
"The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement."
Mr Joyce will hand over to Vanessa Hudson on Wednesday ((September 6)); she released this message to staff.
"We know that post COVID we haven't always delivered to what our customers expect. But we are listening, and we hear what they are saying. As a company, our job is to get the balance right between looking after our customers, you are people, and the business itself. Right now achieving this balance must start with our customers, and that's what we must focus on our with our new management."
Mr Joyce leaves Qantas - with a record $1.7 billion profit - after three years of COVID losses.
Here he is, speaking in August.
"The future for Qantas has never looked better and that is the one thing I'm actually going to be pretty proud of going for."
But in his wake, Qantas has mounting legal challenges.
On Thursday, the consumer watchdog launched action .. alleging Qantas sold thousands of tickets for flights it had already cancelled.
It’s already facing a class action over its handling of flight credits, and is appealing a court ruling it illegally outsourced the jobs of seventeen hundreds ground staff during the pandemic.
Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder, commended Alan Joyce...but conceding:
'We have an important job to do in restoring the public’s confidence.'
Michael Kaine, from the Transport Workers Union, says Mr Joyce's actions have made that challenging.
"He has put service standards through the floor, and airfares through the roof. Clearly renewal is needed, renewal in the board is needed, and we're calling on Vanessa Hudson to take a completely different approach."
The Federal Government has welcomed the transition.
The Industrial Relations minister, Tony Burke, is putting the carrier on notice.
"Qantas is a company that is using the Labor hire loophole in a pretty extraordinary way. My priority is to ensure the workers at Qantas are paid fairly. "
Alan Joyce became Qantas chief in 2008, after launching Jetstar.
He expanded the company's ambitions with Project Sunrise, offering non-stop flights from Australia to the UK, and lent the company's support to progressive causes, like marriage equality.
But his overhaul of the airline has proven divisive.
The low point - the 2011 grounding of the entire fleet - in response to protected industrial action.
Geoffrey Thomas is an aviation expert.
"The airline has changed dramatically under Alan's leadership and it needed to. It's competing with a number of airlines that come in with new labor contracts, leaner and meaner, and changing airline culture is not easy."
Alan Joyce is due to walk away from Qantas with a remuneration package worth an estimated 24 million dollars.
But in recent weeks, the company’s board have faced growing calls to reconsider that golden handshake, with the ACCC investigation threatening to impose hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.
Rachel Waterhouse, CEO of the Australian Shareholders Associations, say the Qantas board has questions to answer.
"The federal court action can take some time to go through. And putting the bonuses on hold would be a good decision to make, while it's been going through that process and also being investigated."
That decision due at November's AGM, where the new direction of the "Spirit of Australia" will become clear.
