Qantas executives punished for major cyber attack with cut to bonuses as Alan Joyce pockets another $3.8m
Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson has been punished for a major cyber attack on the airline’s customer database earlier this year with $250,000 stripped from her annual bonus.
The airline revealed on Friday Ms Hudson earned $6.3 million for the 2025 financial year, up from $4.4m in 2024.
At the same time, her predecessor Alan Joyce will take home a final bonus of $3.8m under long-term incentive provisions that remain active despite his controversial exit from the airline in late 2023.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.While current executives saw a 3 per cent lift in their base salary, the board also imposed a 15 per cent cut to short-term bonuses as punishment for the cyber attack in late June.
This equates to a cut of $250,000 for Ms Hudson, Qantas said reflected the “shared responsibility” of executives for the incident that affected 5.7 million customers.
An initial review found the stolen data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.
The airline said at the time that it detected “unusual activity” after a cyber criminal targeted its Manila call centre and gained access to one of its third-party platforms.
Credit card details, personal finance information and passport details were not held on the platform, meaning frequent flyer accounts, passwords, PIN numbers and login details were not compromised.
Chairman John Mullen said in Qantas’ annual report, also released on Friday, that the bonus cut “demonstrates our commitment to creating a culture of accountability and ownership”.
He also conceded a recent Federal Court decision to hit the airline with a $90m fine for illegally sacking 1800 ground staff during the pandemic had “led to the breakdown of trust amongst stakeholders”.
Qantas last week delivered a near-record profit of $2.4 billion.
“The business had an outstanding year, delivering not just on financial metrics but importantly delivering for customers and our people. Vanessa and her leadership team have done a fantastic job,” Mr Mullen said.
“We saw strong improvements in customer satisfaction, on-time performance and reputation for both Qantas and Jetstar. We expect to build on these improvements in coming years.”
