Opinion: Vanessa Hudson is getting things done

So far, so Joyce. But the most gobsmacking moment came months later, when The Maestro performed a frankly astonishing U-turn, long after borders opened and flights return. He said, to the amusement of the press, that McGowan was “one of, if not the best, politicians easily in the country at the moment and he’s done a fantastic job here”. He made the comments, of course, to promote the launch of Qantas’ route from Perth to Johannesburg, a route launched with the support of the WA Premier.

No wonder Joyce became one of the most famous people in Australia.

Yet what of his successor? Vanessa Hudson has said, well, almost nothing since she took over. In fact, at the time of going to press, I don’t believe she’s conducted a single interview. Her approach couldn’t be more different to what came before. Whisper it though – it seems to be working. As she gallops towards completing her first year in charge, she has been quietly, and methodically, mopping up the mess her successor left behind.

Delays have been dramatically reduced. Profits remain at almost all-time levels. And relationships with the unions appear to be thawing. But she’s also not been afraid to pull her punches and negotiate, too. Perhaps her biggest win so far came by striking a deal with the ACCC to make their ‘ghost flight’ court case go away. While the Flying Kangaroo was forced to pay a settlement that totalled $120 million, it crucially got the consumer watchdog to retract its claim that Qantas deliberately deceived passengers.

“When flying resumed after the COVID shutdown, we recognise Qantas let down customers and fell short of our own standards,” she explained. “We know many of our customers were affected by our failure to provide cancellation notifications in a timely manner and we are sincerely sorry. The return to travelling was already stressful for many and we did not deliver enough support for customers and did not have the technology and systems in place to support our people. We have since updated our processes and are investing in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“We thank the ACCC for their cooperation in reaching this outcome, which means we can compensate affected customers much sooner than if the case had continued in the Federal Court. We are focused on making the remediation process as quick and seamless as possible for customers.”

It seems almost impossible to imagine such an approach from her predecessor. In fact, the airline’s initial position was to claim passengers never really expected their flights to depart on time. Rather, they simply bought a ticket with the hope that they would get to their destination at some point near to when they booked.

As Qantas continues deeper into the year, it will have to grapple with a worldwide shortage of aircraft, pilots and engineers. Can she keep it up? Well, the early signs are promising.