New Qantas boss Hudson starts paying to fix customer bugbears

Qantas Airways' new boss Vanessa Hudson started work trying to restore the airline’s battered reputation with increased spending on major customer bugbears such as on-board catering, call-center staffing and loyalty-point flight redemptions. Less than three weeks after taking the helm, the new CEO has been forced to fix stress points that fractured under predecessor Alan Joyce. Since pandemic travel restrictions eased last year, a spike in flight cancellations, lost bags and telephone wait-times have frustrated passengers. The airline’s simultaneous record profits reinforced the perception that Joyce neglected customers to bolster the airline’s bottom line. In a statement Monday, Qantas said it will spend an extra A$80m ($52m) on so-called passenger improvements in the year ending June 2024, in addition to the A$150m previously allocated for the job. There will be more and better trained workers in Qantas call centers, larger numbers of seats available for air miles, and more generous support for passengers when things go awry, the airline said. The airline also warned that its fuel bill will swell by A$200m to A$2.8b for the six months ending December if oil prices remain elevated. Qantas also expects an additional A$50m hit from unspecified foreign-exchange movements. “All the challenges faced by the airline at the moment do not bode well for its stock price,” said IG markets analyst Hebe Chen. “There’s a significant impairment cost associated with its damaged reputation and diminished trust. Escalating oil prices are putting further pressure on its profit margins.”<br/>