Company heads The company heads of Qantas Airways Limited are only listed from 1993, when Qantas' shares once again traded on the stock exchange as a publicly listed company, following the
Australian Government's move to
privatise the remaining 75% of the airline. Throughout Qantas' history, since 1920, there have been many structures, branding and variations including the name 'Qantas'. Its current company structure was established in 1993, going from an unlisted public company in which the Commonwealth owned all of the shares, to a listed public company. A full list of Qantas chairpersons and managing directors can be found on the
History of Qantas page.
Group Leadership Team The Qantas Group is overseen by the following directors; • Vanessa Hudson – Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director • Rob Marcolina – Group Chief Financial Officer • Markuss Svenson – Chief Executive Officer, Qantas Domestic • Mark Dal Pra – Chief Executive Officer, Qantaslink • Cam Wallace – Chief Executive Officer, Qantas International and Freight • Stephanie Tully – Chief Executive Officer, Jetstar Group • Andrew Glance – Chief Executive Officer, Qantas Loyalty and Customer • Danielle Keighery – Group Chief Corporate Affairs and Communications Officer • Fiona Messent – Group Chief Sustainability Officer • Andrew Monaghan – Group Chief Risk Officer • Kate Towey – Qantas Group General Counsel • Catherine Walsh – Group Chief People Officer • Rachel Yangoyan – Chief Technology, AI and Transformation Officer
Business trends The key trends for the Qantas Group (Qantas Airways Ltd and Controlled Entities, which includes Jetstar and Qantas Cargo), are shown below, as at year ending 30 June:
Headquarters Qantas'
headquarters are located at the Qantas Centre in the suburb of
Mascot, Sydney, New South Wales. In December 2013, a redevelopment of the headquarters was completed.
Ownership The Australian Government has an ownership stake in Qantas through Australia's
sovereign wealth fund, the
Future Fund, and the airline is listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange. Under Commonwealth legislation, Qantas must be at least 51% owned by Australian shareholders.
Airline subsidiaries , Qantas subsidiary
Sunstate AirlinesQantas has operated a number of passenger airline subsidiaries since inception, including: ;Current •
QantasLink – Qantas' regional airline brand encompassing the operations of four Qantas subsidiary airlines (
Eastern Australia Airlines,
National Jet Systems,
Network Aviation and
Sunstate Airlines) and a contract carrier •
Jetstar – currently operating as Qantas'
low-cost carrier •
Jetconnect – a wholly owned Qantas subsidiary established in 2002 that focused on trans-
Tasman travel between New Zealand and Eastern Australia cities (Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney). The last of Jetconnect's aircraft were transferred to the mainline fleet in October 2018 Qantas operates a freight service under the name
Qantas Freight, which uses aircraft operated by Qantas subsidiary
Express Freighters Australia and leases aircraft from
Atlas Air. Qantas wholly owns the logistics-and-air-freight company
Australian airExpress. ;Former •
Australia Asia Airlines – operated from 1990 to 1996 to allow Qantas to serve the Taiwanese market •
Impulse Airlines – an established airline bought by Qantas in 2001. Ceased operations in 2001 and its assets used to establish Jetstar Airways •
Australian Airlines – an international leisure airline that operated from 2002 to 2006, serving leisure destinations in Asia as well as Qantas international routes flown out of Cairns.
Minority airline equity interests In addition to its wholly owned subsidiaries, Qantas also owns minority
equity stakes in a number of other Australian and foreign airlines:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders initiatives Qantas, through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programme, has some links with the Aboriginal Australian community. In the Qantas Reconciliation Action Plan 2015 – 2018, Qantas revealed that 1 percent of all their staff are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Qantas employs a full-time Diversity Coordinator, who is responsible for the programme. Qantas has also bought and donated Aboriginal art. An art installation at its passenger lounge in Brisbane features a painting by Jenna Lee. Qantas has had a number of its aircraft painted with the art of Aboriginal artist
Emily Kame Kngwarreye and others with art inspired by
Rene Kulitja and
Paddy Bedford.
Promotions and sponsorships in
Australian Grand Prix livery at
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 2011 An early television campaign, starting in 1969 and running for several decades, was aimed at American audiences. It featured a live
koala, voiced by
Howard Morris, who complained that too many tourists were coming to Australia and concluded "I hate Qantas." The koala ads have been ranked among the greatest commercials of all time. A long-running advertising campaign features renditions by children's choirs of
Peter Allen's "
I Still Call Australia Home", at various famous landmarks in Australia and foreign locations such as
Venice. The song has been used in Qantas's safety videos since 2018. Qantas was the main sponsor of the
Australia national rugby union team. However, in 2020 Qantas ended its sponsorship of the Wallabies after 30 years. Qantas sponsors the
Socceroos, Australia's national association football team. Qantas was the naming rights sponsor for the
Formula One Australian Grand Prix from
2010 until
2012. In December 2011, Qantas signed a four-year deal with Australian cricket's governing body
Cricket Australia, to be the official carrier of the
Australia national cricket team. Qantas management has expressed strong support for
Marriage Equality and
LGBTIQ issues, with CEO Alan Joyce said to be, "arguably the most prominent corporate voice in the marriage equality campaign". As official airline partner for the
Sydney Mardi Gras, Qantas decorated one of its aircraft with rainbow wording and positioned a
rainbow flag next to the tail's flying kangaroo. Qantas also served
pride cookies to its passengers. It had a rainbow roo float in the Mardi Gras parade. There has been criticism of Qantas using its corporate power to prosecute the private interests on their staff and the community.
Peter Dutton has said that chief executives such as Alan Joyce at Qantas should "stick to their knitting" rather than using the company's brand to advocate for political causes. A senior church leader has made similar comments. Despite the criticism, Qantas will continue to advocate for marriage equality which will include offering customers specially commissioned rings with the phrase, "until we all belong". This phrase will appear on Qantas boarding passes and other paraphernalia. The cost of the campaign by Qantas and other participating companies is expected to be more than $5 million. Joyce has pledged Qantas will, "continue social-justice campaigning", in relation to
Israel Folau, sacked by
Rugby Australia, which is financially supported by Qantas, following his
social media postings on
homosexuality.
2010s structural change In August 2011, the company announced that following financial losses of A$200 million ($209 million) for the year ending June 2011 and a decline in market share, major structural changes would be made. One planned change that did not come to fruition was the plan to create a new Asia-based premium airline that would operate under a different name. In addition to this plan, Qantas announced it planned to cut 1,000 jobs. The reforms included route changes, in particular the cessation of services to London via Hong Kong and Bangkok. While Qantas still operated in these cities, onward flights to London would be via its Oneworld partner British Airways under a code-share service. on 1 April 2013 In 2012, Qantas reported an A$245 million full-year loss to the end of June 2012, citing high fuel prices, intense competition and industrial disputes. This was the first full year loss since Qantas was fully privatised 17 years previously, in 1995, and led to the airline cancelling its order of 35 new
Boeing 787 aircraft, to reduce its spending. Qantas subsequently divested itself of its 50% holding of
StarTrack, Australia's largest road freight company, in part for acquiring full interest in
Australian airExpress. In March 2012, Qantas set up
Jetstar Hong Kong with
China Eastern Airlines Corporation, which was intended to begin flights in 2013, but became embroiled in a protracted approval process. Qantas and Emirates began an alliance on 31 March 2013, in which their combined carriers offered 98 flights per week to Dubai. In September 2013, the carrier predicted another
A$250 million ( million) net loss for the half-year period that ended on 31 December and the implementation of further cost-cutting measures that would see the cut of 1,000 jobs within a year.
S&P downgraded Qantas credit from BBB− (the lowest investment grade) to BB+.
Moody's applied a similar downgrading a month later. Losses continued into the 2014 reporting year, with the Qantas Group reporting a half year loss of A$235 million ( million) and an eventual full year loss of A$2.84 billion. In May 2014, the company stated it expected to shed 2,200 jobs by June 2014, including those of 100 pilots. Qantas reduced the size of its fleet by retiring aircraft and deferring deliveries, and planned to sell some of its assets. With 2,200 employees laid off by June 2014, another 1,800 job positions were planned to be cut by June 2015. Also during 2014, the
Qantas Sale Act, under which the airline was privatised, was amended to repeal parts of section 7. That act limits foreign ownership of Qantas to 49 percent, with foreign airlines subject to further restrictions, including a 35-percent limit for all foreign airline shareholdings combined. A single foreign entity can hold no more than 25 percent of the airline's shares. Qantas returned to profit in 2015, announcing a A$557 million after tax profit in August 2015, in contrast with a A$2.84 billion loss the year earlier. In 2015, Qantas sold its lease of
Terminal 3 at Sydney Airport, which was due to continue until 2019, back to
Sydney Airport Corporation for $535 million. This meant Sydney Airport resumed operational responsibility of the terminal, including the lucrative retail areas. == Accidents and incidents ==