Qantas has announced that Vanessa Hudson, the current Chief Financial Officer of the Qantas Group, will take over Alan Joyce as Chief Executive and Managing Director.
The position change is set to become official on November 3rd when Alan Joyce leaves his post that he’s occupied for some time.
During his time at Qantas, Alan Joyce has experienced many highs and equally as many lows, his time plagued by decisions made by the company during the height of the pandemic that left a sour taste in Australians and more.
Vanessa has been in her role since 2019 and has what Qantas describes as an understanding of Qantas’s inner workings, making her the perfect choice.
Alan Joyce departs before the launch of Qantas’ Project Sunrise, a project that he was the face of, putting the wheels in motion with a commitment to the Airbus A350.
However, with Qantas’ pandemic recovery in full swing and the airline successfully turning its fortunes around, the CEO, who has been a mainstay at Qantas even before the 2010s, says the perfect time to depart is now.
Alan Joyce will continue to work through November and work closely with Vanessa to ensure a smooth transfer of the reigns.
The next few years will be some of Qantas’ most important, group-wide, with a significant fleet transformation ongoing. As a result, Qantas will welcome hundreds of new aircraft across the fleet, from narrowbodies to widebodies, for a host of missions.
