Days after it was ordered to pay three illegally sacked workers $170,000, and weeks after it was fined $100 million for selling tickets on cancelled flights, Qantas says it is winning customers’ trust back after a turbulent 2023.
At the company’s annual general meeting in Hobart today, CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline’s public standing was back on the right trajectory.
“I acknowledge we do not always get it right but the feedback from customers and what we hear when travelling suggests we have turned the corner,” she told shareholders.
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Last year’s AGM saw then-chairman Richard Goyder booed and face calls of “shame on you” after he cut off the microphone of shareholder Chris Maxworthy, before one of the biggest protest votes in Australian corporate history.
Some 83 per cent of shareholders voted against Qantas’ executive pay report then, but the airline avoided a repeat embarrassment and a motion to spill the board with the required three-quarters voting in favour this time around.
Like Hudson, new Chairman John Mullen said Qantas was on its way to restoring its reputation.
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“What I can tell you with conviction is that firstly Qantas and Jetstar have always been and remain excellent airlines,” he said.
“The group’s reputation for safety and operational excellence has remained first class throughout even the most difficult of times.
“And secondly, I can assure you that the issues that caused the difficulties and reputational damage last year have been and are being comprehensively addressed.”
Like Goyder last year, Mullen was questioned several times by Maxworthy, who claimed he could “feel the ghost of Alan Joyce in the room” and questioned the former CEO’s remuneration – which had been slashed by more than $9 million earlier this year.
After an exchange over board member Antony Tyler’s reelection, Maxworthy and Mullen agreed to speak after the AGM.
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Today’s meeting came in the same week the federal court ordered Qantas to pay $170,000 to three ground staff workers who were unlawfully sacked during the pandemic.
That test case ruling has set up a likely significant bill the airline will have to foot for the remainder of the roughly 1700 employees whose roles were illegally outsourced in November 2020.
Earlier this month, Qantas was fined $100 million for selling tickets on already-cancelled flights after being sued by the ACCC, while its engineers have been holding various strikes in recent weeks during an ongoing pay dispute.
The airline’s share price has been at around record-high levels following the AGM, having risen by a little under 1.45 per cent today.
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