Insider says Qantas fights with customers, staff, the unions, competitors and airports

Departed Qantas boss Alan Joyce has drawn criticism from unions who say the once loved flying kangaroo has been turned into “one of the worst corporate bullies in Australia”.

Departed Qantas boss Alan Joyce yesterday drew criticsm from unions who say the once loved flying kangaroo has been turned into “one of the worst corporate bullies in Australia”.

Mr Joyce was pressured to step down two months early after a horror week that saw the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sue the airline for misleading and deceptive conduct in selling thousands of tickets to cancelled ghost flights.

Transport Workers Union boss Michael Kaine was delighted to see the end of Mr Joyce’s 15 year reign at the head of the airline and called on new chief executive Vanessa Hudson to turn over a new leaf.

Over and out....Alan Joyce at Qantas HQ in Mascot. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

“Alan Joyce and the Qantas board have resided over a company that has acted as one of the worst corporate bullies in Australia,” he said.

“Under Joyce it was bulldozing good, secure jobs through exploiting labour hire loopholes, splintering the workforce, underhanded tactics, sackings, grounding the fleet, and the list goes on.”

Transport Workers Union boss Michael Kaine has called out Alan Joyce. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Kaine said the airline had axed 10,000 workers and taken $2.7 billion in taxpayer handouts during Covid before recording a bumper $2.5 billion profit in the week leading up to Mr Joyce pulling the golden parachute cord and walking out with up to $24 million in bonuses.

“This is a company in crisis, and it’s in crisis because of that brutal approach that Alan Joyce has engendered in this company, and it is time for a fresh start,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph understands one of the toughest stances came in a letter to Sydney Airport at the start of the Covid pandemic dictating terms including that no charges be applied for parking aircraft, rents be put on hold and accumulated debt be deferred.

The letter was mirrored in correspondence to other airports around the country and cost Sydney Airport $34 million alone.

Alan Joyce is off and gone. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images for Qantas)

A bruised aviation industry source said: “Qantas is a war machine. They punch on with everyone – customers, staff, the unions, competitors, airports and now the ACCC. The big question is whether Vanessa will be the peacemaker or if the biff keeps going.”

A week before he was forced to step aside Mr Joyce was still battling in the senate cost of living inquiry, telling senators how Australia’s airports needed tougher regulation.

“Australia’s monopoly airports are some of the most profitable in the world – and ultimately it is the passenger who pays,” he said.

“The regulatory regime that governs the relationship between airports and airlines isn’t working.”

Despite leaving a mixed legacy in his wake, Joyce won the praise of LGBTQIA advocacy groups by campaigning for the ‘Yes’ vote in the 2017  same-sex marriage plebiscite. 

That year he won an an award naming him the world’s top LGBTIQ+ business leader, and in the years following Qantas promoted the Sydney Mardi Gras and Sydney World Pride under his leadership.