Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has received his last payout from the airline, pocketing $3.8 million worth of shares after his long-term performance plan vested.
Joyce had his pay cut in August 2024, with the board reducing his potential renumeration by $9.3 million amid a string of public relations blunders that delivered a significant hit to Qantas’s reputation and led to him stepping down six weeks early.
But the board allowed him to keep his long-term incentive plans for 2023-2025, which had now vested, the airline disclosed on Friday.
The renumeration is higher than it would have been thanks to the strong performance of Qantas shares, which have gone from $4.47 three years ago to $10.74 as of June 30. They have more than doubled since Vanessa Hudson stepped in Joyce’s shoes as CEO.
Hudson, meanwhile, received $6.3 million in renumeration in 2024/25, up 43 per cent from the $4.4 million she received the previous financial year.
Hudson and the rest of Qantas’s senior executive team had their short-term bonuses cut by 15 percentage points as a result of the hack of customer data detected in late June, when 5.7 million customer records were stolen from a third-party vendor.
This equates to a $250,000 reduction for Hudson.
Qantas Group chairman John Mullen said the team’s bonus reduction “reflects their shared accountability, while acknowledging the ongoing efforts to support customers and put in place additional protections for customers”.
Mullen added that overall Qantas had an outstanding year, with improved operational performance, higher customer satisfaction and employee engagement and a $2.39 billion underlying profit.
It had rewarded about 25,000 team members $1000 in shares, in addition to $1000 “thank you” payments they received in December.
Last month, the airline posted a bottom-line net profit of $1.6 billion for the year ended June 30, announcing at the same time that it had ordered another 20 Airbus A321XLR aircraft.
Just over a week earlier it had been ordered by the Federal Court to pay a landmark penalty of $90 million for illegally sacking more than 1800 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
-AAP
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