Matt O’Sullivan’s book shows circumstances behind Qantas’ decline

A NEW book on Qantas is likely to prove a hit with aviation fans keen to get behind the scenes at the flying kangaroo.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, right, with his predecessor and mentor Geoff Dixon. Picture: Dan Himbrechts.

A NEW book on Qantas is likely to prove a hit with airline staff and aviation fans keen to get behind the scenes at the flying kangaroo. Fairfax Media’s Matt O’Sullivan has augmented his experience covering aviation with interviews with key players to produce a compelling and detailed account of key events affecting Qantas in recent years.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and chairman Leigh Clifford refused to be interviewed for Mayday: How Warring Egos Forced Qantas Off Course but O’Sullivan reconstructs the airline’s often Machiavellian backroom deals and strategies.

There are no significant new smoking guns but his diligent research has unearthed plenty of interesting vignettes and provides an accessible insight into the industry’s complexities.

While the book goes back as far as the founding of Qantas, it concentrates on the post-Ansett years leading up to, and following, Joyce’s appointment in 2008. This includes the founding of Jetstar, the ill-fated Aviation Partners Australia private equity bid and how the decision to appoint Joyce ahead of then chief financial officer Peter Gregg and executive general manager John Borghetti affected the airline’s course.

It examines the airline’s struggle to gain purchase in Asia with its Jetstar joint ventures and the stillborn RedQ, how the poisonous relationship between management and some unions led to the grounding of the fleet in 2011 and the slide by Qantas towards last year’s huge net loss.

The warring egos enter the equation with the breakdown in the relationship between Joyce and mentor Geoff Dixon and the battle for control of the airline that led to the rupture.

“The Qantas story has had many twists and turns. It has been one hell of a ride,’’ O’Sullivan concludes.

Mayday: How Warring Egos Forced Qantas Off Course, by Matt O’Sullivan, Viking, $32.99.