Alan Joyce grilled over cancelled flights and Covid credits
Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has faced a line of tough questioning after appearing in front of a Senate committee on Monday, who questioned his enormous salary in the face of the cost of living crisis.
At the explosive public hearing of the select committee on the cost of living, which Joyce had to be summonsed to after repeatedly refusing to attend, the outgoing Qantas chief executive defended the record $2.47bn full-year profit he announced just days earlier.
Senators were confused by the extraordinary profit, given Qantas has seen 12 months of soaring customer dissatisfaction and a looming class action lawsuit over the travel credits policy during the height of the pandemic, as well as facing accusations of anti-competitive behaviour, and historically high cancellation rates out of Sydney airport.
Joyce defended the profits, saying Qantas had been caught up in a wave of “criticism of corporate profits” due to cost-of-living pressures.
As well as the company's incredible profits, Joyce himself, who is walking away from the CEO role at the end of the year, is set to walk away with as much as $24 million in personal pay.
Labor senator Tony Sheldon quizzed Joyce on if he feels "embarrassed" over his huge personal salary, given the airline’s soaring complaints and his decisions to restructure the airline to pay employees less.
Joyce refused to answer the question, saying the senator was "making a whole series of points that are just incorrect.”
Joyce was then grilled on the seemingly "strategic" cancellation of domestic flights, in which some senators, as well as airline competitors, had accused Qantas of booking in flights out of Sydney airport and then cancelling them last minute, to block other airlines from increasing their services.
He again denied these claims, stating that Qantas’s cancellation rate on a national level (not out of Sydney specifically) were the lowest of the major carriers, and blamed the cancellations on “supply chain issues” and “air traffic control delays”.
Finally, Joyce was confronted over his policy of not refunding travel credits that were issued when travellers' trips were cancelled during the height of the pandemic.
In June, Qantas announced more than $500 million in Covid credits remained unclaimed and would expire by the end of the year.
While refunds have been offered for some credits, not everyone was able to claim these, and a class action lawsuit is now claiming compensation for lost interest on the credits.
At the Senate committee meeting, Jetstar chief executive, Steph Tully, said the number of unclaimed credits now lies at $370 million, however this figure did not reflect Jetstar or overseas customers’ credits.
“Around $100m” in Jetstar credits remain unclaimed, on top of Qantas’s $370m, Tully said.
Senator Sheldon then slammed Tully for "not being transparent” before asking “what’s stopping you from refunding the money”.
Tully replied “lots of reasons”, citing codeshare flights and “half-taken trips”.
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