CANBERRA – The boss of Australian airline Qantas mentioned Tuesday he would depart his process in an instant — two months previous than deliberate — following a sequence of embarrassing revelations about the corporate, together with allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been canceled.
Chief Executive Alan Joyce mentioned that after 15 years working the nationwide provider he was once bringing ahead his deliberate retirement date.
The airline mentioned Vanessa Hudson would take over as managing director and workforce leader govt from Wednesday.
The announcement got here after a hard few weeks for Qantas and Joyce. He was once grilled via Australian senators closing week on flight delays and prices, whilst a client watchdog workforce introduced Thursday it was once taking prison motion in opposition to Qantas and would search a penalty that may run into the loads of thousands and thousands of greenbacks.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission mentioned it was once taking the motion after Qantas “engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights that it had already canceled but not removed from sale.”
The fee mentioned that during many circumstances, Qantas persisted promoting tickets or behind schedule telling ticketholders the flights were canceled. That continuously led shoppers to have much less time to make selection preparations and to probably pay upper costs for new flights, the fee mentioned.
Qantas up to now stated its requirements had fallen smartly wanting expectancies as the airline emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joyce mentioned there was once so much he was once proud about all through his 22 years running for Qantas.
“In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me that the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority,” he mentioned in his commentary. “The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement and hand over to Vanessa and the new management team now, knowing they will do an excellent job.”
Last month Qantas announced a record pre-tax annual profit of nearly 2.5 billion Australian dollars ($1.6 billion), up from a loss of almost AU$2 billion the previous year.
The airline has since come under pressure to pay back the AU$2.7 billion it received from the Australian government during the coronavirus pandemic.
Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder said the board thanked Joyce for his leadership.
“Alan has always had the best interests of Qantas front and center, and today shows that,” Goyder said.
Shareholders will formally vote on the appointment of Hudson as managing director at the company’s annual general meeting in November.
Qantas stocks rose about 1% after the announcement however remained down greater than 11% from a month in the past.