Qantas recovers $6 million from ex-CEO Alan Joyce

Australia’s largest airline by year embarrassing plane ticket cancellation scandal, did some research and decided the ordeal was so mortifying that he needs to recover millions in compensation from his CEO at the time. Qantas announced Thursday that he had revoked $9.3 million ($6 million) in stock options from Alan Joyce for his role in the drama.

In October, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced that Qantas would have to pay a $100 million fine for selling 87,000 so-called “ghost flights”, or tickets for flights that were cancelled. In one case the ACCC said when opened his investigation in question, a ticket sold for a flight 40 days after it was cancelled. The fine was the largest ever imposed by the agency on an Australian airline.

In addition to the ghost flight scandal, the carrier has also dealt with negative headlines for things like a court ruling that found Qantas illegally fired 1,700 baggage handlers, cleaners and other workers at the height of the COVID-19 industry slowdown, as well as allegations of anti-competitive bullying from Australian rival Rex Airlines. All that fuss after all it cost Joyce her job in September after more than 20 years with the company. Now, it looks like it will cost him a bit more than that.

“The events that affected Qantas and its reputation and caused considerable damage to relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders were due to a number of factors,” the airline said in a statement announcing the recovery, adding that “while not there were findings of deliberate wrongdoing, the review found that mistakes were made by the board and management which contributed to the Group’s significant reputational and customer service issues.”