Like a Qantas flight, Alan, ‘the best thing I can do’ was way overdue
Alan Joyce pocketed his latest $10 million bonus, headed for the emergency exit and leapt with his golden parachute. Like a delayed Qantas flight — and Lord knows there’s been plenty of them — it’s a case of too little too late.
Opinion
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“It’s the best thing I can do,” said fallen Qantas CEO Alan Joyce as he pocketed his latest $10 million bonus and headed for the emergency exit, leaping — finally — with his golden parachute to an early retirement.
Like a delayed Qantas flight — and Lord knows there’s been plenty of them — it’s a case of too little too late.
For Qantas, the billions Joyce has made shareholders in 15 years as chief pilot was all fine and good … until customers woke up to the fact Qantas wasn’t so much biting the hand that feeds it as it was charging an arm and a leg for shabby service failing them on so many levels.
From the rarefied air of the Chairman’s Lounge, no doubt cutting 17,000 jobs and raking in JobKeeper payments during Covid was good business.
Likewise hoarding cash from cancelled flights, offering ‘credits’ rather than automatic refunds, and decreeing when and where those credits could be used meant the bottom line looked good, even if the customer reviews didn’t.
But amid revelations of slot hoarding, ghost flights, the endless cheapening of frequent flyer points, and returning from Covid after taking millions in JobKeeper payments to a record profit, the so-called national carrier struck turbulence in the form of grounded consumer sentiment.
As the lost luggage and hours spent in call queues trying to speak to a human to resolve issues mounted, so did the baggage weighing increasingly on the Qantas brand.
Qantas morphed from the airline of choice, the one punters could trust, to the airline of evasion, excuses and arrogance.
The ACCC’s allegations the airline was selling airfares for flights it had already cancelled was the last straw.
There were plenty of “best things” Alan Joyce could have done ahead of today’s “best thing”
Like ensuring the company he oversaw refunded people the money owed for flights they couldn’t take, without quibbling, rather than putting them through ridiculous hoops and hours on hold while it sat on $570 million in flight credits.
Like paying back JobKeeper.
Like not choosing his own successor, and taking a tone-deaf extended farewell tour as the complaints mounted.
Like dropping the unapologetic tough guy act which shareholders and Qantas investors adored, but in a post-pandemic world struggling with the cost of living rang increasingly hollow for those made to feel like the customer was not only far from right, but they were damned lucky to be paying top dollar for lost luggage.
Perhaps the “best thing to do” could have been, instead of justifying cancelled flights and announcing record profits of $2.5 billion while keeping millions in taxpayer handouts, Qantas could have invested a bit in the people who were footing its bills.
Instead, humility sounded a mayday as arrogance truly took flight and trust crashed and burned.
Joyce, and the Flying Kangaroo discovered that rarefied air, ultimately, leaves the high-flyers gasping for breath, struggling to survive.
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