Australia’s biggest airline, after an embarrassing airfare cancellation scandal, has done some soul-searching and decided that the ordeal was so mortifying that it has to claw back millions in compensation from its CEO at the time. Qantas announced Thursday that it would be revoking A$9.3 million ($6 million) in stock options from Alan Joyce for his role in the drama.
In October, the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission announced that Qantas would have to pay a A$100 million fine for selling 87,000 so-called “ghost flights,” or tickets for flights that had been cancelled. In one case, the ACCC said when it opened its investigation into the matter, a ticket sold for a flight 40 days after it had been nixed. The fine was the largest one ever levied by the agency against an Australian airline.
In addition to the ghost flights scandal, the carrier also had to deal with negative headlines for things like a court ruling that found Qantas illegally fired 1,700 baggage handlers, cleaners, and other workers during the height of the COVID-19 industry slowdown, as well as allegations of anti-competitive “bullying” from Australian rival Rex Airlines. All that tumult eventually cost Joyce his job in September after more than 20 years with the company. Now, it appears that it will cost him a bit more than that.
“The events that damaged Qantas and its reputation and caused considerable harm to relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders were due to a number of factors,” the airline said in a statement announcing the clawback, adding that “while there were no findings of deliberate wrongdoing, the review found that mistakes were made by the Board and management which contributed to the Group’s significant reputational and customer service issues.”