‘A must-read for anyone looking to understand how unchecked corporate power can lead to disastrous results’

FINANCIAL TIMES 

Before Covid, both Qantas and its CEO Alan Joyce were flying high, the darlings of customers, staff and investors. After Covid hit, only money mattered – in particular, the company’s share price and extraordinary executive bonuses. Illegal sackings, unethical flight credits and abysmal customer service became Qantas’ new brand.

How did things go so wrong? Why were customers at the end of the queue? And how did an increasingly autocratic Joyce constantly get his own way, with the Qantas board and with both Liberal and Labor governments, which handed over billions in subsidies and protected lucrative flight routes from foreign competition? The Chairman’s Lounge tells the full story of how Qantas banked the nation’s loyalty and then cashed in on it.

Celebrated columnist Joe Aston’s reporting of the ethical failing of Qantas spurred the early retirement of its CEO and the resignation of its chairman. With fresh revelations and written in Aston’s trademark style, The Chairman’s Lounge is the definitive account of how Qantas was brought to ground and who did it.