Northstar

20 | www.travelweekly-asia.com Alan Joyce: "Focus, determination and capability will get you there." AVIATION What I like about Australia is how they call a spade a spade and if they could, they'd abbreviate it (and they probably have) and so when Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) called Alan Joyce a "tough little bugger" on stage, I wasn't too surprised. On June 8, 2012, Qantas' share was trading at 97 cents. On August 4, the day of the CAPA Australian Aviation Summit in Sydney, it was at $3.85 – a four-fold rise in three years. There was talk of shutting down the airline, Joyce was getting death threats and there were calls for his resignation. This time last year too, Qantas announced its biggest losses yet in August this year Qantas revealed a full year after-tax profit of A$557 million (US$410m), a huge contrast to last year's A$2.84 billion loss. It was thus a very different Joyce who took to the CAPA stage this year. Calling it the "biggest transformation ever", Joyce said that business, in all segments, was returning cost to capital and that the turnaround was not only in financial terms but also in customer satisfaction. "Share prices fluctuate everyday. What you do is focus on delivering the right strategy. Focus, determination and capability will get you there," he said. He sees three opportunities ahead for Qantas – an Australian economy in transition, the continued rise of Asia and big data, which is turning into Qantas' biggest asset. The rebounding of the Australian economy and the competitive Australian dollar are leading to increases in both domestic and inbound travel. "The weak Aussie dollar means great opportunities for our international business." Indeed the turning point in the plan was getting its international business back into profitability. "How do you justify buying new aircraft and expanding otherwise – we knew we had to become profitable." This positions it well to tap into Asia which, by 2034, will be bigger than Europe and North America put together. The group has seen a drastic turnaround in Asia – in May, it reported a $300 million EBITDA improvement since 2012. Qantas has added 80% more capacity to Singapore, similar to Hong Kong; it's invested in product and lounges and it's doubled capacity to Japan. Delinking Asia and Europe – shifting of hubs from Singapore to Dubai for its European routes – with the partnership with Emirates has also worked well. "We're combining two amazing assets – the Emirates network to Europe and our customer base." HOW 'TOUGH LITTLE' ALAN JOYCE TURNED QANTAS AROUND In fact, if I were the CEO of Qantas, I'd take it as a compliment, especially coming from a man who, after 25 years of watching and analysing the ups and downs of aviation in Australia and around the world, should know what "tough" means. By Yeoh Siew Hoon

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