If you think you’re having a stressful day, week, or even year, then spare a moment’s thought for the marketing team at Qantas.
Today it was announced that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was stepping down from the airline two months early, following a string of scandals including news that the airline sold tickets for flights that were already cancelled.
On X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Alan Joyce was trending and the comments weren’t too friendly.
One user said “Qantas CEO Alan Joyce retires a wealthy man today. He leaves behind angry customers, a resentful workforce, and repetitional harm. That’s not leadership.”
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce retires a wealthy man today. He leaves behind angry customers, a resentful workforce and reputational harm. That’s not leadership.
— Brad Desmond (@BradDesmond2) September 4, 2023
Another described Joyce as the “face of corporate greed”, saying he has ruined the reputation of a “once proud airline”.
Alan Joyce was the face of corporate greed . He treated staff with contempt and smashed secure work . He destroyed the reputation of a once proud Airline . Service and reliability of flights and your luggage arriving with you was hit and miss . Good riddance Joyce
— 💧Sally Lawry (@SallyLawry) September 4, 2023
On Instagram, Qantas customers left a series of scathing comments in response to a fathers day post the company put up on Sunday.
The post said, “We love our Airport Dads 🥰 Happy Father’s Day!”
The goodwill did not extend to the comment section of the post, however, where things were frosty.
“Forgot the part where Qantas sends your plane to a different city, offers little compensation for yourself and your heavily pregnant wife while you wait several hours for a connecting flight to the city you were meant to originally go to,” one Instagram user said.
“Missed the part where he had to spend an unexpected 5 hours in the terminal because you canceled a flight,” another commented.
“Did his bags arrive?” another asked.
View this post on Instagram
Qantas has largely not engaged with the furor on social media, its sole communication in the last few days has been through a series of press releases on its website.
Announcing Joyce’s departure the company said “Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce has advised the Board he will bring forward his retirement by two months to help the company accelerate its renewal”.
Joyce said: “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.
“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.
“There is a lot I am proud of over my 22 years at Qantas, including the past 15 years as CEO. There have been many ups and downs, and there is clearly much work still to be done, especially to make sure we always deliver for our customers. But I leave knowing that the company is fundamentally strong and has a bright future,” Mr Joyce said.
CEO designate Vanessa Hudson will assume the role of managing director and group CEO effective 6 September 2023.
