Alan Joyce, the Irish chief executive of Australian airline Qantas, has passed the toughest test of his career with flying colours. The company has just announced record €620 million profits and intends to return half of it to shareholders.

In 2014, his transformation plan for the airline seemed grounded by huge losses and critics were calling for his head. Three years earlier his proposal to cut 5,000 jobs at Qantas had sparked industrial unrest.

They are eating their words now. John Addis, founder of Intelligent Investor, wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald apologising for predicting two years ago that Qantas would sack its chief executive.

“Mostly I felt happy for our people and the effort they put in,” Joyce says. He adds that the part the airline’s 30,000 staff played in turning the company around was key in the results. Another factor was the large number of satisfied travellers that flew with Qantas.

“We have never dropped the ball when it came to customer service, we have continuously invested in that all through transformation.”