Qantas brand rebuild begins with international fare sale and new corporate affairs chief

The embattled airline is getting serious about its brand makeover, announcing a major international fare sale and a new corporate affairs chief.

Qantas has settled on a sure fire crowd pleaser as it works to repair its battered brand, announcing an international fare sale starting from as low as $999 return for business class.

The airline has also named a new corporate affairs chief, bringing in former Crown Resorts and Virgin Australia public relations whiz Danielle Keighery.

The cheapest fare in the pointy end of the plane is for Sydney-New Caledonia; with other business class bargains on Brisbane-Tokyo for $4999 return, and Adelaide-Bali for $2449.

Economy and premium economy seats on many routes are also on sale, as the international airline space from Australia becomes more competitive.

As well as strong competition from United Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore, Qantas is facing a new threat in the form of Turkish Airlines.

The Istanbul-based carrier will begin flights from Melbourne on March 15, initially via Singapore.

Qantas said half a million seats across its network were “on sale” including on routes to Paris, New York and London.

An airline spokesman said the sale coincided with the end of school holidays and was designed to get people thinking about their next getaway.

“This international sale gives Australians the opportunity to lock in discounted fares to some of the most in-demand international destinations, including our new route between Perth and Paris,” said the spokesman.

Economy seats on Perth-Paris are available for $1909 return, $3799 in premium economy or $8509 in business.

Fares for Sydney-Auckland in economy start from $529 return, and $1799 for Sydney-New York.

Other business class fares on sale include Sydney-Vancouver for $5999 return, Melbourne-Los Angeles for $7299 and Perth-Singapore for $3719.

Danielle Keighery has been named as Qantas’s new head of corporate affairs, after she decided against taking up a position at Optus. Picture: Britta Campion

The sale came as Qantas announced Ms Keighery would replace corporate affairs chief Andrew McGinnes who is leaving the airline after 13 years.

Ms Keighery left a similar role at Virgin Australia in 2020 as the airline sank into administration and was bought by US private equity firm Bain Capital.

Since then, she has held roles of chief customer officer with Bank of Queensland, and chief brand and corporate affairs officer with Crown Resorts. 

She was expected to take up a role at Optus this year but decided against it, when the chief executive quit and the telecommunications giant struggled with more outage issues.

In a statement, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said Ms Keighery had “a wealth of experience leading corporate affairs functions for major organisations in both Australia and overseas”.

“Danielle also has a deep understanding of aviation, having held a number of senior executive roles at Virgin Australia during more than a decade with the airline,” Ms Hudson said.

“I know she will make a valuable contribution to the Qantas Group as part of our leadership team.”

Ms Keighery will start with Qantas on March 1, to allow for a transition period before Mr McGinnes departs.

Ms Hudson again thanked Mr McGinnes for “all his work over a long and successful career at Qantas”.

It was expected Ms Keighery’s skills would be put to good use at Qantas, with the airline still struggling to overcome a difficult couple of years resulting in significant brand damage.

As well as a string of court cases, the issue of Qantas executive pay remained an issue after shareholders voted down the remuneration report at last year’s AGM.

A couple of high-priced consultancy firms have been brought in to help Qantas get back to its best, including the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey.

It’s understood McKinsey’s role was to lift on-time performance by Qantas based on the firm’s knowledge of the world’s best practice at other airlines.