Stir crazy traveller snaps up dozens of flights in just one day, Qantas chief reveals

A stir crazy traveller satisfied their wanderlust by snapping up dozens of flights in just one day, Qantas boss Alan Joyce has revealed.

One keen traveller clearly driven stir crazy by the pandemic booked a staggering amount of flights in just 24 hours, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has revealed.

He told the airline’s annual general meeting on Friday that travel demand was roaring back, with people who stockpiled their frequent flyers points accumulated at supermarkets and banks during the health crisis coming out “in force as we’ve added extra flights”.

The national carrier recorded its strongest ever day for flight redemptions in October after it announced the biggest single release of additional Classic Flight Reward seats across its international and domestic network, with more than half a billion points spent on 15,000 seats in 24 hours.

“Some very clever passenger actually booked 38 flights in that period of time – obviously very keen to travel post-Covid,” Mr Joyce said.

He noted “it seemed too optimistic to some” when Qantas earlier this year announced plans to restart international flights in December.

“But because Australians have come out in droves to be vaccinated, it’s actually happening faster than any of us expected,” he said.

Qantas has been savaged by Covid-19, posting an eye-watering $2.35bn loss for the last financial year, following a $2.7bn loss the year before. Picture: William West/AFP

Demand for seats on the London to Sydney service in particular had been “extremely strong, with Aussies coming home in time for Christmas and more flights added as a result”.

Flagship A380 aircraft were being brought back into service, he said, with the first arriving from Dresden on Tuesday, which was earlier than expected.

NSW dropping quarantine requirements had brought back 11,000 staff, with Qantas expecting to return to flying at nearly 100 per cent of its pre-Covid domestic schedule in December or January, while international operations would progressively ramp up.

Just a handful of international flights had got off the ground in the past few days, chairman Richard Goyder said, and both executives warned the resumption would be “bumpy”.

Mr Joyce said all onshore staff were able to return to work early next month.

“Combined with operational and corporate employees already working, all 22,000 employees are expected to be back working, which wasn’t expected to happen until June next year,” he said.

There have been joyous scenes of family reunions at Sydney international airport. Pictured is Maria Exposto reuniting with her brother John last Friday. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

Its controversial outsourcing of ground staff was a difficult decision that had to be made, Mr Joyce said.

Mr Goyder said the airline fortunately expected “no need for further large-scale job cuts” but had no good news for about 2000 axed baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners, who lost their jobs to outsourcing and fought the move through the Transport Workers Union in the Federal Court.

In July, the union won, but Qantas is pushing through with an appeal to be heard early next year.

Mr Goyder said the airline “fundamentally” disagreed with the judgment and was motivated “only by lawful commercial reasons, including saving $100m a year in the middle of a global pandemic”.

“We also avoided spending $80m on equipment over the next five years and we can now better match resources with fluctuating levels of demand.”

He said it had not been a foregone conclusion Qantas would survive Covid-19, which would likely have cost the group more than $20bn in revenue by the end of this calendar year.

“It’s a staggering number,” Mr Goyder said.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce says of the airline’s plans to restart international flights in December: ‘it seemed too optimistic to some’. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA Newswire

A separate court process was looking at potential remedies for outsourced employees, should the appeal be unsuccessful, he said.

“While the TWU is pushing for reinstatement, we no longer have a ground handling business to reinstate former employees to, nor the equipment to do the work,” Mr Goyder said.

“Should the appeal be unsuccessful, we believe compensation is the more likely outcome.”

Multiple shareholders were critical of the job cuts, with one saying “future proofing” the business was “not about laying off staff”.

But Mr Joyce said aviation was a sector prone to “sudden shock syndrome”.

“Our position on this has always been clear: we’ll get our people back to work when there is work to do,” he said.

Qantas would focus on just generating cash, not making profits, while it got staff back to work, Mr Joyce said.

One keen traveller booked 38 flights in 24 hours last month using Qantas Frequent Flyer points, Mr Joyce revealed. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

Mr Goyder was asked when dividends would resume – having not been paid since September 2019 – and said they would return when the balance sheet was repaired.

“We have a degree of confidence as we look forward.”

The Australian Shareholders Association said executives were being handsomely rewarded while investors suffered, but Mr Goyder said Qantas had performed relatively strongly compared to other airlines.

He also defended a shareholder questioning the long-term incentive plan (LTIP) for Mr Joyce, saying the CEO was an exceptional one.

And the overwhelming majority of investors agreed, with just 1.32 per cent of votes cast against his LTIP, while 90 per cent of votes were cast in favour of the remuneration report.

There were also very high votes in favour of re-electing directors - all over 99 per cent.

In the final moments of the meeting, Mr Goyder glanced at his phone for details of Western Australia’s border reopening road map and appeared disappointed, saying it “sounds like a plan to have a plan”.