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Qantas has announced that Vanessa Hudson will become the airline’s new CEO when current chief Alan Joyce retires from the role in November 2023. She takes charge after Alan Joyce’s marathon 15 year ride.

Qantas has again appointed its CEO internally. Hudson is currently the Qantas Group’s Chief Financial Officer. Hudson will be the company’s first female CEO in its century-long history.

Hudson won a global and closely contested internal search pipping Qantas frequent flyer boss Olivia Wirth. Both women were subjected to intensive interviews rounds and asked to present their long-term vision for the airline.

But while Qantas is enjoying record profitability in fiscal 2023 Hudson will face several challenges when she takes over. A real challenge will be to win back the goodwill of passengers. According to Roy Morgan Research Qantas has collapsed from the 9th to the 40th most trusted brand in Australia. In the long-term fleet renewal will be a key challenge because it represents a substantial capital investment. COVID-19 delays and cancellations in aircraft deliveries have exacerbated Qantas’ already ageing fleet.  Also pricing competition is expected to return as capacity bottlenecks particularly labour shortages ease for Qantas and its competitors.

In other Qantas news the airline has made some major changes to its inflight menu to woo back customers. Qantas is now serving larger meals and offering more variety including vegetarian and plant-based options (something they have copped a lot of flak about).

Qantas faces a lengthy court battle to acquire smaller operator Alliance after the competition watchdog announced its opposition to the $614m deal. The ACCC concluded that the transaction was likely to substantially lessen competition in the fly-in, fly-out markets of Queensland and Western Australia. Qantas had already taken a 20% stake in Alliance and was keen to acquire the rest. Also, on the ACCC front an investigation into Qantas’ handling of billions of dollars’ worth of Covid-19 travel credits is now into its second year. Qantas travel credits expire at the end of this year and there is about $800 million still outstanding. The ACCC may intervene and extend the deadline, so customers are not left out of pocket. 

The last Qantas A380 has left desert storage after almost 1000 days in storage. Before being cleared to carry passengers again the aircraft will undergo what’s known as a “12-year check” in Abu Dhabi involving a complete dismantle and rebuild which includes all four engines being taken off, landing gear removed and replaced, and all the electronic systems taken out and rechecked. The process which takes about 4000 hours to complete highlights the complexity for Qantas in returning its fleet to service post COVID.

Source: Qantas A380 fleet out of the desert after almost 1000 days in storage by Robyn Ironside The Australian April 13th, Qantas set for a court battle to buy alliance after ACCC opposed $614m deal by Robyn Ironside The Australian April 20th, How new Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson already passed the CEO test to succeed Alan Joyce by E Johnson The Australian May 2nd.