Late-night egg attack shows traveller fury at Qantas CEO

Bloomberg

The black and white security camera footage is clear enough to make out a hooded figure on a tree-lined Sydney street. The person is energetically hurling — almost like a baseball pitcher — something at a house just
before 2 am on July 12.
Daylight reveals that the A$19 million ($13 million) harborside home of Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce has been pelted with eggs and toilet paper.
Lauded just over a year ago for bringing Australia’s iconic airline through the pandemic stronger than ever, Joyce has been knocked from his pedestal by its aftermath. The challenges of restarting travel are overwhelming Qantas and threatening to tarnish the legacy of one of aviation’s longest-serving and highest-profile leaders.
A combination of staff shortages and flight delays has given Qantas the title of Australia’s least-reliable carrier, with the prank on his home just the tip of a wave of vitriol on social media — much of it targeted at Joyce — that’s intensifying with every canceled route and lost suitcase.
Emboldened by the public anger, some of Joyce’s oldest foes in Australia’s union movement sense they might finally have their man.
It’s a stunning reversal for Joyce, 56, who won the devotion of shareholders by resurrecting Qantas twice in less than a decade through a series of ruthless job and spending cuts. He’s perhaps the nearest thing in Australia to a celebrity CEO.
None of that seems to matter to passengers who’ve endured hours-long check-in queues, especially during peak holiday periods, or slept rough at foreign airports after flight delays. Qantas canceled 8.1% of domestic services in June, the latest available government data show. Some luggage has gone missing for weeks.
Joyce has been at the helm of Qantas for so long — almost 14 years — that he’s seen as the face of its current ailments. For years the industry’s golden boy, Joyce is now hostage to the travel chaos that’s dogging most airline CEOs, with his plan to stay on until at least the end of 2023 at risk of turning into a hastier exit.
While airlines all over the world are struggling with the post-pandemic recovery, Qantas is in a somewhat unique
position.