‘Made mistakes’: Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce admits errors in the top job at Australia’s national airline

Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has opened for the first time after stepping away from the role, admitting he “got things wrong” during his tenure at the national airline.

Mr Joyce stepped out of the top job in September 2023 after five years with Jetstar and 15 years at Qantas.

He described the two-decade tenure as the “dog years”.

“There are years where it’s the best job in the world and there are years and periods where it’s the worst job in the world,” he told 60 Minutes’ Tracey Grimshaw.

“As a result, you know that you have to be careful you don’t burn out, you can only keep this going for so long.”

It was Covid-19 which tested his leadership, as international flights were grounded and staff illegally sacked.

In 2021, the Federal Court ruled outsourcing baggage handling and cleaning had breached industrial laws.

Earlier this year, the airline was ordered to pay $90m over the illegal sacking of 1820 workers during the pandemic – the largest industrial relations penalty in Australian corporate history.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also sued the airline for misleading customers who purchased tickets for flights which had been cancelled days or weeks earlier.

Mr Joyce said he had hoped to retire at the age of 53, but said his final years with the airline didn’t go to plan.

“I look back at where we were in ‘19, Qantas was at the highest of high, it had the best customer service rankings it’s ever had,” he said.

“It was making record profits and I was thinking, what a great way to sail into the sunset.”

He said Covid-19 “knocked us between the eyes”, causing the airline to enter “survival mode”, which he said marked “the most horrible period” of his career.

“At one stage we had 11 weeks of cash left before we were going bankrupt,” he said.

“It was the most horrible period I’ve had in my entire career, ‘cause you were making horrendous decisions to make sure the airlines survived.”

Mr Joyce admitted the airline made mistakes during the pandemic, with the buck stopping at him.

“I think we made mistakes, and I think we got things wrong, and I’d be the first to admit that,” he said.

“I think Qantas is ... in survival now because we got more things right than we got wrong.

“I recognise that when it comes down to it, the buck will always stop with the CEO on these things, and I accept that.”

Mr Joyce said the pandemic created “chaos” for the airline as it dealt with the grounded flights.

“We had over 400,000 passengers we were trying to re-accommodate through the call centres, it was in chaos,” he said.

He said he took “ultimate responsibility” for the sacking of staff, which was illegal, but said the airline was “in the middle of a crisis” and tried to stop it from going bankrupt.

“Well, I’m saying I’m taking accountability for it,” he said.

“I think we made mistakes, we made errors where I’m omitting all the errors.

“But at the end of the day, I think we made more right decisions than wrong decisions and that’s why Qantas is still around.”

Qantas’ illegal sacking of the staff occurred months before the baggage handlers’ enterprise agreement had reopened for negotiation, which would have allowed workers to go on strike.

The airline has denied it conspired to prevent that.