Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says he was “in tears” as he made friends, some of 20 years, redundant to ensure the national airline survived the pandemic.
Mr Joyce was questioned on Friday about how much he had earned while thousands of Qantas workers were laid off, as COVID forced the closure of Australia’s borders and a steep decline in the carrier’s profits.
It came as the airline boss also flagged looming 20 per cent increases in international fares and a 10 per cent jump in domestic fares to pay Qantas’ rising fuel bill.
Qantas announced a $1.86 billion pre-tax annual loss for 2021-2022 on Thursday.
“We had to make some really tough decisions to survive,” Mr Joyce told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“Friends that I’d had for 20 years, I had them in my office, and I was in tears, making them redundant.”
Pandemic job cuts reached even the highest levels at Qantas, Mr joyce said, with 30 per cent of those in head office roles made redundant.
Qantas sacked 6000 staff in 2020 and laid off a further 2000 ground staff to outsource their work months later. That decision was later found by the Federal Court to be illegal.
Mr Qantas also told Fordham his salary was tied to Qantas’ performance and said he would not receive a reported $200 million worth of bonuses.
Elsewhere, Mr Joyce warned of steep hikes in airfares in a media address for Qantas’ full-year results on Thursday.
“It’s fair to say that we’ve seen a dramatic rise in fuel,” he said.
“For this year, we’re forecasting that we will be 60 per cent higher in fuel costs than we were back in 2019 before COVID.
“That means we’ll have a billion dollars more in the fuel bill compared to 2019, and we’ll only have 75 per cent of our international flying and less than 100 per cent of our domestic flying, so that’s a huge increase in costs.
“We will still offer value for people but it is a cost we have to pass on; it’s a cost we can’t digest given what we have gone through.”
Mr Joyce told 2GB on Friday that he and Qantas should be judged on the national carrier’s future performances, with both the airline and its boss under increasing public scrutiny.
On Monday, Qantas’s $50 apology vouchers for months of delays, cancellations and mishandled baggage were lashed, and the Transport Workers Union called for Mr Joyce’s resignation.
“This is the most difficult period for the aviation industry,” he said.
“The restart hasn’t been as smooth as we hoped for. We should be doing better, and we will be doing better.”
