Is Qantas boss Alan Joyce the best CEO in the airline business?

New Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson faces a challenge in taking the place of Alan Joyce, who may not be loved by all Australians but is widely considered world class.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been rated the best in the business by respected aviation strategist Peter Harbison, ahead of his departure in November. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gaye Gerard

When Alan Joyce steps down as Qantas CEO in November, the world will lose one of its best airline chief executives, in the opinion of respected aviation strategist Peter Harbison.

In his role as emeritus chairman of the Centre for Aviation, Harbison interviewed virtually every airline CEO in the world and says few impressed him as much as Joyce.

He says he brought qualities to the job few possessed, including high intelligence, humility and the ability to make and wear very tough decisions.

“Of all the airline CEOs I’ve interviewed, he’s the straightest, most honest and open of all of them, largely because he respects people. With him it’s always about the team,” Harbison says.

“He’s had the balls to do things even when it must’ve been pretty difficult personally on a lot of occasions. It’s not an easy role. To do these things — grounding the fleet, restructuring your workforce — does require a lot from a human being and we tend to forget that CEOs are human beings.”

Aviation strategist Peter Harbison. Picture: Supplied

Unlike most other industries, Harbison says the success of an airline CEO was not a simple matter of looking at their balance sheet.

External shocks are all too frequent, as demonstrated by the Covid pandemic and the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks, and volcanic ash cloud episodes before that.

Harbison points out that in the global financial crisis from 2007 to early 2009, the airline industry lost more money than it had made in the previous 70-years.

“It’s a dreadful industry,” says Harbison.

“I’ve asked a lot of CEOs ‘why do you do it, it’s such an awful business’ and what it usually comes down to, is the fact it’s a great challenge.”

What Joyce did to counter the unpredictable business of flying, was oversee the growth of Qantas frequent flyer to a scheme that’s expected to achieve earnings of half a billion dollars next year.

Harbison also believes Joyce deserves credit for the dual airline strategy adopted by Qantas in the mid-2000s to compete with Virgin Blue.

“Qantas was getting obliterated by Virgin because their model was perfect for Australia, so they quite controversially set up a low cost subsidiary (Jetstar) which no-one else had ever done,” he says.

“Alan was the one who insisted on it being away from Sydney, insisted on it being non-union and all these things were really tough.”

Other CEOs Harbison ranks in the same class as Alan Joyce, include Emirates’ president Sir Tim Clark, ex-British Airways boss Willie Walsh, former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe and Virgin Blue’s Bretty Godfrey.

He describes Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker as a “genius” and Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary a “survivor”.

“There are a lot of crap airline CEOs. It’s an incestuous business so it tends not to get a lot of external expertise coming in partly because it is so complicated,” says Harbison.

“You’ve got one in Air New Zealand at the moment, Greg Foran who has a great retail background but we’re yet to see how good he is.”

Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran is in the hot seat. Picture: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

At the other end of the scale, are former Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti and ex-Etihad chief James Hogan.

“John was pretty much on a hiding to nothing. His basic strategy was right (in transforming Virgin Australia to compete with Qantas) but I don’t think he had much of a clue about finances,” says Harbison.

“He was interested in the front end, not the other side of the ledger and that’s basically why he had to go in the end.”

Australian-born Hogan also struggled at the helm of the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, he says.

“I thought he was going in the right direction but he chose the wrong partners for Etihad and crashed and burned in flames big time,” says Harbison.

How Vanessa Hudson will stack up as Qantas’s first new CEO in 15-years remains to be seen but Harbison says she is coming in at a good time.

“It’s getting easier because of the (Qantas) dominance in the Australian market and I think Virgin is going to stay where it is,” he says.

“The only thing that’s going to change is when the second Sydney airport comes into play and opens things up to other airlines. That will make life interesting for all players.”

Originally published as Is Qantas boss Alan Joyce the best CEO in the airline business?