Alan Joyce, the embattled Qantas CEO, has spoken up about the time he sobbed openly after being forced to fire hundreds of employees due to the epidemic.
Since international crossings reopened in November of last year, the airline has struggled with flight delays, cancellations, lengthy boarding waits, and problems with the processing of baggage.
Mr. Joyce said that when Qantas was only 11 weeks away from filing for bankruptcy, 30% of the company’s head office employees were laid off.
On 2GB’s Ben Fordham live, he stated, “Friends who I’ve known for 20 years I had in my office, and I was in tears having to make them redundant, but we had to do it to survive.”
We are losing a lot of money as a result.
“I sincerely apologise for what occurred, but I also have a duty to the remaining 22,000 employees of the corporation and a duty to ensure the survival of the national symbol.”
According to Mr. Joyce, this was the “most challenging era” in Qantas’ 100-year existence.
Additionally, the CEO was questioned on the million-dollar share incentives that were going to be given to executives.
“We’re really offering out incentives to all of our workers worth $200 million if the firm goes back,” he stated. “All of our employees suffered in the previous two years.”
“We believed that the ethical thing to do for those people was to provide $10,000 to each employee today if the firm does turn around and deliver,” the statement said.
According to Mr. Joyce, he went six months without receiving a salary and was the only CEO of an ASX-listed company to not get a bonus in 2017.
Mr. Joyce stated his intention to remain in his position as Qantas’ CEO at least to the end of 2023, despite demands for him to go.
‘There are other airlines just as awful, Qantas is one of the few ones here that has apologised for its behaviour,’ he added.
“But others haven’t done that, so we’re out there trying to make it up to our consumers and treat them with respect.”
It follows the announcement that Qantas would increase prices by more than 20% and operate fewer flights due to a “staggering” decline in profitability.
Customers will pay an additional 10% on domestic flights and 20% on overseas flights, with some journeys costing passengers an extra $300.
While a flight from Brisbane to the Harbour City could increase from $269 to $295, a flight from Melbourne to Sydney would cost $250 instead of $230.
As it strives to recover from recent blows to its image, Qantas has placed the responsibility for the price increase on the growing cost of fuel and historically high rates of worker sickness.
According to Mr. Joyce, a minimum of 320 pilots, as well as a number of air hostesses, bag handlers, and ground crew members, call in ill on a daily basis.
On Thursday, Mr. Joyce said that the airline had lost $1.9 billion in the 2022 fiscal year and had failed to provide consumers the kind of customer care they deserved.
The CEO of Qantas recognised that the company needs to improve and blamed personnel shortages on the seven-day Covid isolation periods at a news conference.
All of these led to issues that were well publicised, including lengthy lines, delayed flights, and lost luggage, he said on Thursday.
For our workers, it was quite difficult, and for our passengers, it was extremely aggravating.
“It just wasn’t good enough, and for that, we apologise,” the company said.
He said that the flagship airline had lost more money in the last three years due to the Covid-19 outbreak than they had earned in the previous five.
The CEO acknowledged that the numbers were challenging and called them “staggering.”
This raises our overall losses from the pandemic’s beginning to more than $7 billion and our revenue losses to more than $25 billion, the executive added.
“The previous year was difficult for everyone. It’s amazing that we were able to navigate through this.
By the end of this year, Mr. Joyce predicted that the airline will recover from its “staggering” losses and achieve its previous levels of profitability.