Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce will quit his role two months earlier than planned - just days after the Australian airline was accused of selling tickets for thousands of flights that it had already cancelled.
Joyce had been due to retire in November to be replaced by Qantas' current chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson, but he will now make way for Hudson on Wednesday (6 September).
Last week, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched court action alleging that Qantas was “engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct” by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights that had already been cancelled but were still on sale.
The airline is also appealing a ruling about illegally outsourcing jobs during the pandemic and faces a class action from customers over Covid-related flight credits.
Joyce, who has been CEO at Qantas for 15 years, said his decision to retire two months early was to “help the company accelerate its renewal”.
“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,” said Joyce in a statement.
“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.”
In a separate statement, Qantas said it “continues to review” the allegations made by the ACCC over selling tickets for already cancelled flights.
“The period of time that the ACCC’s claims relate to - in mid-2022 - was one of well-publicised upheaval and uncertainty across the aviation industry, as Qantas struggled to restart post-Covid,” said the company.
“We openly acknowledge that our service standards fell well short and we sincerely apologise. We have worked hard to fix them since and that work continues.”