iscover
Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will have his final pay cut by over $9 million.
Joyce, who stepped down as CEO in September 2023, around two months before his planned exit, will lose all of his shares from the airline’s Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) – valued at $8.36 million – as well as 33 per cent of his short-term incentives from FY23, or $900,000.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
The pay cut follows months of speculation about Joyce’s incentives, with The Australian reporting in June that consultants had been called in to advise whether the former Qantas boss should receive around $16 million in bonuses.
Qantas suffered a massive hit to its reputation in 2023 over a string of bad press, including the ACCC’s “ghost flights” lawsuit – which was settled earlier this year – and the High Court’s ruling over the illegal outsourcing of ground workers during the pandemic.
In a statement to the ASX, Qantas’ board said that while there was no deliberate wrongdoing found, “mistakes were made by the Board and management which contributed to the Group’s significant reputational and customer service issues”.
“The Board has also determined that the short term incentives for affected current and former senior executives will also be reduced by 33 per cent. Inclusive of Mr Joyce’s reduction, the overall reduction in the FY23 short term incentives is approximately $4.1 million,” the statement read.
“In reaching these decisions, the Board has considered the individual and collective accountability of members of the Group Management Committee. The Board has also taken into account their performance in bringing Qantas through the pandemic and the challenges of standing up the airline through that period. The combination of these factors is reflected in the reduction in the short term incentives.
“Mr Joyce was the Chief Executive Officer of the Qantas Group. In this role he had overall accountability and responsibility for the outcomes of the business and this is reflected in the forfeiting of his 2021-2023 LTIP shares that vested in August 2023.
“Current Non-Executive Directors who were on the Board at the time will take a 33 per cent reduction to their Directors’ base fees this year.”
Joyce earned $21.4 million in the 2022–23 financial year, $8.3 million of which was subject to clawback if the board deemed it necessary.
In a statement last year, now-outgoing Qantas chair Richard Goyder said the Flying Kangaroo was suffering “an acute loss of trust from the community, and accumulated disappointment from customers”.
“The scorecard that determines short-term incentive payments has a number of financial and non-financial measures, including safety, customer satisfaction and emissions reduction,” he said.
“While customer satisfaction levels improved during the year, they are well below where they should be. As a result, this part of the scorecard was judged at zero out of a possible 20 per cent and this had a corresponding impact on senior executive pay.”
