Qantas International boss reveals plan to restore love for the brand

Qantas’ performance has been likened to that of a favourite sports team which leaves fans ‘deeply disappointed’ when it fails – but like sports teams, the airline has plans to turn things around.

Qantas International chief executive Cam Wallace. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace has likened the airline’s performance in recent years to that of a sporting side that people want to see succeed but has disappointed them.

Speaking at the annual Destination Australia conference in Sydney, Mr Wallace said the emotion tied up with Qantas was similar to that for the Maroons or Blues at Origin time.

“The relationship that everyday Australians have with the Qantas brand is quite unique, and I make comparisons to the relationship you might have with a sporting team, such as the Maroons,” he told conference moderator Karl Stefanovic.

“You want them to win and when they don’t win you get deeply disappointed and I think that’s some of the emotion that’s been felt in the last six to nine months in Australia.”

The brand took a battering after the airline’s full year results last year, which appeared to come at the expense of customers through high fares and mediocre service. A series of other controversies including court rulings and hard-to-use travel credits only added to the grief, on top of Senate hearings that portrayed Qantas as a corporate bully.

Mr Wallace said “ultimately customers wanted Qantas to succeed” and they were investing in product and people to do that.

“We’re making sure we do the basics and the fundamentals right, so it’s really about delivering at the end of the day, and it’s about market consistency,” said Mr Wallace.

“The other thing we’re doing from an international perspective is we’re growing the network; so we’ve got more flights to more places which is important for the country and it’s important for tourism and the travel industry as well.”

He said Qantas was a big enough company to have a “material impact on tourism” and that’s what they wanted to do.

“We sell about 60 per cent of international seats in Australia and 40 per cent offshore. I think there are huge opportunities for us to do better offshore and bring more tourists in.”

It was hoped that the launch of so-called Project Sunrise flights in 2026 would assist with that, by putting Sydney within a single flight of London and New York.

Mr Stefanovic put to Mr Wallace it was a “terrible name” for the project – bestowed by former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.

“We could change it now,” joked Mr Wallace. “But we’re incredibly excited about it and we want to be the world leader in ultra-long non-stop travel. We’ve got the right aircraft, we’ve got the right geographic location, so we’re very well positioned and we wish it was here now but we’re already doing a lot of ultra-long routes (such as Perth-London, Perth-Rome, Melbourne-Dallas and Auckland-New York).”

New A350-1000s would operate the routes, with Mr Wallace declaring the more fuel efficient aircraft the future of aviation. He confirmed Qantas was planning to retire its A380 fleet in 2032 or 2033 in favour of the smaller wide bodies now being manufactured.