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The zombie chairman: How Goyder let Joyce trash Qantas’ reputation

The zombie chairman: How Goyder let Joyce trash Qantas’ reputation

An exclusive extract from Joe Aston’s book The Chairman’s Lounge tells the inside story of how Richard Goyder and his board allowed Alan Joyce to fly Qantas into a reputational disaster.

Joe AstonColumnist

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Qantas CEO Alan Joyce had spent July 2022 on vacation in Europe. In his absence, Qantas and Jetstar customers endured the worst month of service reliability since records were kept, paired with the highest airfares in living memory. Qantas management did not appear to comprehend the diabolical risk to the airline’s brand of robbing their customers blind, then, as an added bonus, showing them the worst time of their lives. Roy Morgan’s latest consumer research on Qantas was typified by responses like, “I hate how they operate. They take your money, cancel your flight at any time. You have to fight to get your money back,” and “I don’t like their treatment of staff throughout the pandemic”.

On-time arrivals for August – 62 per cent for Qantas and 60 per cent for Jetstar – remained 20 percentage points below pre-COVID levels. Qantas’ mishandled baggage rate had recovered to only 50 per cent above pre-COVID levels.

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Joe Aston
Joe AstonColumnistJoe Aston helmed The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window column from 2012 to 2023. Connect with Joe on Facebook and Twitter.

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/management/the-zombie-chairman-how-goyder-let-joyce-trash-qantas-reputation-20241022-p5kkfz