Qantas taps industry veteran, but will it make any difference

Richard Goyder has named John Mullen as his successor at Qantas, as the under fire airline chooses a chair with strong industrials experience while ignoring the elephant in the room – unhappy customers.

First things first. Richard Goyder should have departed as Qantas chairman at the same time as former chief executive Alan Joyce.

The outspoken chairman, infamous for his call to Nine Entertainment that Joyce was the “best CEO in Australia by the length of a straight,” all while customers faced record delays, lost bags and after illegally firing its baggage handlers, said back then the airline needed consistency with the sudden departure of its boss.

That continuity of incompetence at the Flying Kangaroo spoke volumes about the complete lack of humility at the nation’s most complained about airline.

The appointment of 69-year-old John Mullen as chair to replace Goyder shows Qantas may still remain committed to this cause, with Mullen having chaired the most frequently complained about telco, Telstra, for many years.

Qantas chair Richard Goyder and CEO Vanessa Hudson at Qantas’ annual shareholder meeting in Melbourne last year.Picture: Luis Ascui/NCA NewsWire

Whether or not Mullen will influence clearly needed change at the top remains to be seen, but he certainly does not represent what most thought the airline needed. A rethink in the way it treats its customers and employees and a shift in focus on woke policies.

Mullens’ even has experience defending the failed Indigenous voice to parliament referendum – something Qantas was widely criticised for backing.

At last year’s Telstra annual general meeting, he defended the decision to donate $1m to the Yes campaign, saying the telco was a “values-based company,” that supported words with actions. Not quite like Qantas’s decision to paint the campaign on its planes, but not far off.

So where does this leave the airline now?

Last year when considering who would become the next CEO, the Qantas board faced a choice of more of the same, with then chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson, or pivoting to a brand and marketing specialist in Loyalty chief Olivia Wirth.

The board chose Hudson, a woman who is widely backed by those who have worked for her, but was undoubtedly part of the airline’s problem when it refused to give customers refunds for travel bookings cancelled due to the pandemic. Qantas only backed down on this one when the Competition watchdog sued the airline for selling tickets on already-cancelled flights.

At Thursday’s half-year results, Hudson will undoubtedly face questions on how the individual airline units will hit tough margin targets in order to fund the much overdue fleet renewal program, something she was also responsible for as CFO.

Hudson has been almost invisible since taking the reins at Qantas, and she is fortunate that the airline’s biggest competitor Virgin Australia is having its own issues with staff and customers, which resulted in the sudden announced departure of CEO Jayne Hrdlicka on Tuesday.

In the appointment of Mullens, the airline’s board has chosen a chair with strong industrials experience, having sat on the board of Brambles and run Asciano and DHL Express. He is considered a “very solid pair of hands,” but a brand and customer man he is not.

It is clear that despite the ongoing passenger-facing problems at Qantas, the nation’s biggest airline is not intending to pivot to a customer-facing approach at the top.

Originally published as Qantas taps industry veteran, but will it make any difference