Major change coming to Qantas in Australia as Alan Joyce promises to bring down airfares

Qantas is about to spend $100 million on new and refurbished airport lounges as airfares continue to rise across the industry as it recovers from the global Covid lockdown.

CEO Alan Joyce insisted the national airline does not have a bad public image, despite recently slipping from ninth to 40th in Australia’s ‘most trusted’ company rankings.

Joyce, who on Thursday will announce a half-year profit of around $1.3 billion for Qantas, said airfares were on average 20% higher now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, largely because fuel was 65% more expensive.

Over Christmas round-trip cheap airfares from Australia to Europe were as high as $6,000.

Joyce said international fares would drop as the world moved past Covid-19 and Qantas faced more competition from foreign airlines.

“We don’t set the prices, the market does,” Joyce said. the aussieindicating that fares would only drop once foreign airlines added more flights to Australia.

He did not say when that would happen, but in an interview with the irish times in June 2021 he said: “We don’t think we’ll go back to 2019 levels until 2024.”

Joyce said there are still good deals out there depending on how far in advance a flight is booked and the day of the week.

He said Qantas has 2 million seats available for less than $200 this year, while its Jetstar subsidiary has 10 million seats available for less than $100.

There are also five million seats available for frequent flyers to use their points, he said.

‘My advice is to book early. The second thing is to travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and the third thing I would recommend is to wait for the sales to go up.’

Despite falling 31 places to 40th in pollster Roy Morgan’s ranking of Australia’s ‘most trusted’ companies, Joyce said Qantas will soon be back in the top 10.

Part of the plan to win back public trust is a $100 million investment over three years in lounges, which are used by around 30 percent of Qantas passengers.

Travelers ranked lounges as the third best reason to fly Qantas, after its large number of destinations and inflight service.

“What we’ve found over time is that more and more frequent fliers are qualifying for (lounge access), because we have nine million customers using them every year, so we have to make them bigger and have more,” Joyce said. .

About 30 per cent of Qantas passengers use the company’s airport lounges, such as the one shown in Perth.

Qantas (aircraft pictured) has two million seats available for less than $200 in 2023, while its Jetstar subsidiary has 10 million seats available for less than $100

A new first class lounge is planned to open for London Heathrow Airport in time for the first non-stop Sydney-London flights in late 2025.

Lounges at Sydney and Melbourne and Hong Kong international airports will be renovated and Hobart will have a new Qantas club.

In Western Australia, Broome is expected to get an upgraded hall due to its increasing popularity as a high-end holiday destination.

With a large number of flights having to be canceled during various Covid lockdowns, Qantas has issued flight credits, but has come under fire for how difficult it is to use those credits.

However, Joyce pushed back against the criticism, saying Qantas is “sending out emails every month to remind people to use their travel credits and just before Christmas we had a double points offer if you used your credit.”

However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) continues to investigate Qantas’ handling of travel credits.

Last year, ACCC chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb said Qantas “did not make a proper realistic assessment of how many flights it could serve” as air travel grew strongly after the pandemic.

“We are currently investigating a number of complaints, so we have an ongoing commitment, if I put it that way, because our investigations are confidential until we reach a point of conclusion on them,” he said. Australian Guardian.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in travel credits remain unspent, but Joyce said the airline was doing everything it could to help people use them.

Along with a dedicated ‘travel credit concierge’ in the call centres, Qantas was working on a ‘find my travel credits’ website, similar to the ‘find my supermarket’ sites.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said there are good deals on fares depending on how far in advance a flight is booked and the day of the week. Pictured is Qantas signage at Brisbane Domestic Airport on Thursday 22 September 2022

The chief executive also said he is concerned that the industrial relations environment has shifted too much in favor of unions under the federal Labor government.

The pendulum swings from one side to the other. When there was WorkChoices (under John Howard’s Liberal-National Coalition) employers had a huge advantage, now with multi-employer bargaining it gives unions a huge advantage,” he said.

“We would like a stable system somewhere in the middle that encourages people to negotiate in good faith.”