Qantas

Qantas (officially Qantas Airways Limited) is the flag carrier of Australia and one of the world's oldest airlines. Founded in 1920, Qantas is headquartered in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, adjacent to its main hub at Sydney Airport. As of March 2023, Qantas Group had a 60.8% share of the Australian domestic market.

Alan Joyce was appointed CEO of Qantas in 2008 and has overseen the company through a series of challenges and scandals.

COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing travel restrictions, Qantas faced criticism for placing “unreasonable barriers” in the way of customers attempting to get a refund for cancelled flights. These barriers included requiring customers to pay extra fees, placing limits on available flights, unfair expiry dates, long waits on call centres and technical problems with online services. Choice, a consumer advocacy group, lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as a result.

Many customers who redeemed credit for their cancelled flights reported being in a worse financial position as a result and accused Qantas of price-gouging. Mr. Joyce rejected this allegation, calling it “absolute nonsense” and stating that Qantas customers got “the exact same as what you paid for.”

In August of 2023 a class action lawsuit was filed against Qantas seeking millions of dollars in compensation for those customers affected and who did not receive refunds for their cancelled flights.

Qantas Board of Directors

The Qantas board is made up of a majority of independent non-executive directors. The current members of the Qantas corporate board are:

• Richard Goyder (Non Executive Director and Chairman)

• Vanessa Hudson (Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director)

• Maxine Brenner (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Jacqueline Hey (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Belinda Hutchinson (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Michael L'Estrange (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Doug Parker (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Todd Sampson (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Dr Heather Smith (Independent Non-Executive Director)

• Antony Tyler Independent Non-Executive Director

Sources & Further Reading

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-12/accc-investigates-qantas-flight-credit-policy/100983274

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-14/qantas-flight-credit-policy-customer-complaints-covid/100824816

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-21/qantas-hit-with-lawsuit-for-holding-over-1b-credits/102755916

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-group/about-us/our-leadership.html