Brace position: Qantas enters another week of turbulence with calls for cuts to be made to CEO’s bonus

Young air stewardess suffering from headache on an airplane.
Edited by Travel Weekly


    There is mounting pressure on Richard Goyder, Qantas’ chair to use provisions in the airline’s contract with outgoing chief executive Alan Joyce to hold back on paying out some of the CEO’s bonus due to recent legal action from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), according to The Australian Financial Review.

    The report says Goyder will soon meet with Qantas’ biggest shareholders following the announcement from the ACCC.

    The watchdog announced it would take action against the airline over allegations it sold tickets on cancelled flights, with potential fines likely to be in the hundreds of millions.

    Share pay out:

    Last week, Alan Joyce received shares worth more than $10m following the airline’s record $2.5 billion profit in the last financial year.

    In a statement to the ASX, the airline said Joyce received allocations directly as well as via his interests in Alan Joyce Pty Ltd and as trustee of the Alan Joyce Family Trust.

    The The Australian Financial Review says he’s been paid around $125 million in bonuses as Qantas CEO.

    Pay us back:

    On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for Qantas to pay back some of the hundreds of millions of dollars it was paid during the COVID pandemic.

    According to ABC, Qantas received $2.7 billion in federal government assistance during the pandemic, $855 million of that coming from JobKeeper wage subsidy payments.

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