Qantas boss Alan Joyce departure prompts call for change

With the Alan Joyce era at Qantas over, there are hopes the carrier will re-engage with regional towns. Read why they’ve fallen so far.

Alan Joyce’s hasty departure from Qantas last week should usher in an era of change at the airline, Tourism Central Australia’s peak-body hopes.

Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford, who clashed with the airline about flights to Alice Springs, said the national carrier needed a new culture and leadership.

But hopes for change might be premature, with Qantas signalling it will cut one Melbourne and one Sydney service to the NT in October.

Mr Rochford said change was needed at Qantas.

“I think all of Australia would agree it was time for change at Qantas,” Mr Rochford said. “Nobody would argue the national airline is in need of a new culture and new leadership.

“We have certainly been strongly advocating for the impacts the national airline has been having on communities like Alice Springs for some time now and we have been calling for a more positive frame of mind, and a more positive attitude in all areas.

Danial Rochford.

“In fairness to the new chief executive (Vanessa Hudson), all of Australia is very hopeful she will lead that change.

“I have been in tourism long enough to remember a day when Qantas was extremely proactive in regional Australia. We’d see the regional director regularly, they sponsored local events, sit on the Chamber of Commerce board.

“Qantas took a proactive role in regional Australia. No doubt under Joyce’s leadership that has retracted. Qantas has had a long-term relationship with the Northern Territory which is why we’re so invested on the topic.”

During a farewell visit to the NT in June, Mr Joyce blamed crime for flights in and out of the red centre languishing well below pre-Covid levels.

He took a swipe at local tourism organisations saying “we’d be strong advocates for them doing more than they are doing today”.

Alan Joyce, former chief executive officer of Qantas Airways Ltd. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The shot reverberated around the Territory tourism industry, with Mr Rochford pointing out not only had the airline dropped capacity in Alice Springs, but had hiked airfares.

“Qantas needs to understand their strategies are strangling our tourism industry but more importantly strikes at the heart of the liveability of our amazing town,” Mr Rochford said at the time.

With new leadership at Qantas, Mr Rochford hopes for a new era of co-operation and respect.

Stolen vehicles were a symptom of Alice Springs’ crime crisis that impacted tourism.

“I want to focus attention on the new leadership at Qantas and I’m very hopeful the future looks brighter for regional airlines. Qantas has had to endure a firestorm of brand damage and it needs to own and rectify this in the future,” he said.

“We need a strong Qantas that is proactive in rural and regional Australia and we need Qantas to be backing regional Australian much more than they have been.”

During last week’s Future NT forum at Mindil Beach casino, demographer Simon Kuestenmacher said regional airlines such as start-up Bonza should be viewed as economic champions.

“What you want from a Territory perspective is to embrace those minor players,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“Everybody should be hugging their local Bonza employee. These are gold mines for regional towns and deliver better connectivity.”