Australia’s Qantas CEO Alan Joyce quits early as embarrassing revelations, scandals mount

Alan Joyce is leaving Qantas two months earlier than planned and will be replaced by Vanessa Hudson as CEO and managing director from Wednesday

Australia’s flag carrier is facing growing criticism over delays, the alleged sale of thousands of tickets for cancelled flights and rising costs

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Alan Joyce, outgoing CEO of Qantas Airways, said that after 15 years running the national carrier he was bringing forward his planned retirement date. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:03pm, 5 Sep 2023Updated: 1:14pm, 5 Sep 2023

The boss of Australian airline Qantas said on Tuesday he would leave his job immediately – two months earlier than planned – following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been cancelled.

Chief Executive Alan Joyce said that after 15 years running the national carrier he was bringing forward his planned retirement date.

The airline said Vanessa Hudson would take over as managing director and group chief executive from Wednesday.

Qantas passenger jets at Sydney Airport. The airline is facing mounting scandals ranging from delays to the alleged sale of thousands of tickets for cancelled flights. Photo: AP

The announcement came after a difficult few weeks for Qantas and Joyce. He was grilled by Australian senators last week on flight delays and costs, while a consumer watchdog group announced on Thursday it was taking legal action against Qantas and would seek a penalty that would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it was taking the action after Qantas “engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights that it had already cancelled but not removed from sale”.

The commission said that in many cases, Qantas continued selling tickets or delayed telling ticket holders the flights had been cancelled. That often led customers to have less time to make alternative arrangements and to potentially pay higher prices for new flights, the commission said.

Qantas previously acknowledged its standards had fallen well short of expectations as the airline emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.