That Was The Week That Was 31 October – 04 November
Qantas Wins Big Award
Greetings from Sydney, where your correspondent is currently watching the world go past. The big aviation news in Australia this week, the week that was, centred on Qantas. There were two items of interest, and in the way of such things, there are of course connected.
First, Qantas held its annual general meeting, and the CEO, Alan Joyce was awarded a AUD$4,000,000 bonus, mostly as shares. So, you might think that things were going very well, and that everything was going well indeed.
Well, well, not so much it seems. Because Choice, the long-standing and highly regarded Australian consumer magazine, awarded Qantas a Shonky Award. This is not a good thing. Qantas shared the podium with a loan shark and a dodgy chicken meat provider.
For those not familiar with the rich and colourful thing that is Australian English, first, commiserations. Secondly, to be shonky is not a good thing. The Urban Dictionary defines ‘shonky’ to mean ‘of poor or low quality’. Qantas were as gracious as you might expect when this was announced, noting that their metrics were improving, so there. Well, awards are not normally awarded prospectively, but for past performance, or lack of performance in this case.
Choice did not pull any punches, describing Qantas, which tags itself as ‘the Spirit of Australia’ as ‘The Spirit of Disappointment’. Still, the Australian aviation market being what it is, consumers are given little choice and high costs. Shareholders obviously agree with the strategy Qantas is pursuing.
So, in the words of a former Australian airline, TAA (now part of Qantas), it is up, up and away.