Qantas Chairman, Richard Goyder Dismisses Calls to Step Down

The chairman of Australian airline Qantas Airways pledged on Wednesday to stay in his post despite the numerous scandals rocking the company, saying its main shareholders wanted continuity in management, while its shares are at their lowest level for a year. year.

At a parliamentary hearing, Richard Goyder resisted weeks of pressure to resign, including from the company’s pilots, saying he had followed “high ethics” throughout his career and that Investors saw him as the best person to lead the company through a reputational crisis.

Mr Goyder’s testimony before a Senate committee set up a tense standoff between one of Australia’s most revered business leaders and top lawmakers, who accused him of chairing a company involved in potential abuse of market power and violation of consumer law, and illegally dismissing workers.

After the airline’s longtime CEO retired earlier this month, citing the need for renewal, unions, consumer groups and investors set their sights on Mr. Goyder. Stock analysts have downgraded the stock, citing rising costs of purchasing fuel and repairing customer service systems.

“I met with our major shareholders two weeks ago and they strongly encouraged me to stay,” Mr. Goyder said at the hearing.

” He added that he led conglomerate Wesfarmers through the 2009 financial crisis as CEO before leading Qantas “through the most existential crisis we have experienced as an airline.”

“As long as I maintain the confidence of the shareholders and the board of directors, I will continue to carry out my duties. If this confidence is not maintained, it is clear that I will review this decision,” he said.

Asked about the federal government’s decision to block Qatar Airways from doubling the number of its potential flights to Australia, new Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson confirmed her company had sent a confidential document to the government in 2022 to objecting to the rival’s request, on the grounds that it was “incredibly important to let the market recover from the effects of COVID”.

But she and Goyder, Qantas’ chairman since 2018, denied having discussions about the Qatari request with a member of the federal government.

The decision sparked consumer outrage at Qantas, which sells three-fifths of all Australian domestic air tickets, because it limited competition that could have driven down prices, antitrust experts say.

Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of Virgin Australia, Qantas’ biggest domestic competitor, told the Senate she regretted not pushing harder for additional flights from partner airline Qatar.

“We sincerely believed that Qatar’s rights offer would be approved,” Ms. Hrdlicka said. “It was unthinkable that it would not be. The country needs additional capacity.

Matt Raos, Qatar Airways’ senior vice president of global sales, told the hearing that the company was “surprised and shocked” that its application had been rejected without reason

September 28, 2023