QANTAS: Australians might not be happy with the ‘Spirit of Australia’, but shareholders are.

Qantas held its Annual General Meeting today in Sydney.

While questioners online and in person asked about the reputational damage recent on-time, cancelled flights and lost/delayed luggage performance had caused, shareholders overall seemed happy with the companies performance. Forecasting a return to an underlining AU$1.3 billion profit after a pandemic will do that to a shareholder.

This comfortable reception of the performance of the airline and the CEO is reflected in the approval to the AGM resolutions. The chairman and two directors were re-election recommendations were carried, receiving over 97% of votes. So Richard Goyder remains chairman, with Maxine Brenner and Jacqueline Hey as non-executive directors.

Chief Executive Remuneration

There were two motions directly concerning the remuneration of the CEO Alan Joyce, and a third vote accepting the overall remuneration report. Shareholder, or at least 90% of them approved Joyce’s remuneration set out in the recovery and retention plan, with over 98% approving his longer term incentives. This despite one shareholder adviser thinking the bar set for Alan Joyce to reach being too low.

The remuneration report was also approved with more than 90% of shareholder voting in favour.

One more thing

Also confirmed during the meeting: that Adelaide is to have a new Business lounge, and the New Zealand Auckland lounges are to be upgraded prior to the launch of the direct Auckland to New York route scheduled for mid 2023.

The meeting was also told that massive amounts have been invested in IT, with improvements to the app highlighted.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I was surprised given the public criticism of Joyce’s handling of the return to flying post lockdowns, not to mention the Choice award of a Shonky to the airline yesterday, that there was such overwhelming support for his remuneration package. While some concern was expressed through questions about the reputation of Qantas, there seemed to be support for the way Joyce has handled the whole pandemic, despite the difficulties at easter and other school holiday periods this year.

Maybe its just me, but while AJ was banging on about improvements to the app, I did a simple search for classic award seats in October 2023, and got the Qantas three dots of death for the next 20 minutes. Maybe they need to spend a little more money on their website award availability machine?

The share price jumped from AU$5.89 just prior to the meeting to a high of AU$5.99 during the meeting, and looks like settling back to around AU$5.95 by the close of trading.

Nothing to see here according to most shareholders.

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