The Australian Senate has summonsed Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce to appear before an inquiry into the cost-of-living crisis after claims he repeatedly refused to attend voluntarily.
On Wednesday, ahead of Qantas unveiling what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar profit, Labor senator Tony Sheldon revealed that Joyce had resisted a request to answer questions before a Senate select committee hearing on Monday in Melbourne.
Guardian Australia understands Joyce repeatedly refused to appear voluntarily and only confirmed his attendance after being issued with a summons – an unusual measure for Senate committees to take.
Senators plan to grill Joyce on stubbornly high ticket prices, Joyce’s personal bonuses, ground handler outsourcing and a Qantas travel credit scheme, which is now the subject of a class action lawsuit claiming the airline treated $1bn in customer money held from Covid-19 cancellations as interest-free loans.
Sheldon – a fierce critic of Qantas and a former official at the Transport Workers’ Union, which has had a combative relationship with the airline – accused Joyce of “almost a decade of evading parliamentary scrutiny”, having last appeared before the Senate in 2014.
A Qantas spokesperson said: “Qantas was invited to attend a cost-of-living Senate committee hearing and to nominate relevant executives, which we did. Despite no other company CEO being required to attend, the committee subsequently insisted that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce appear, which he will do.”
On Wednesday, a separate parliamentary inquiry into promoting economic dynamism heard accusations that the national carrier, its budget outfit Jetstar and competitor Virgin Australia, have been hoarding take off and landing slots at Sydney Airport to shut out smaller airlines such as Rex and Bonza from introducing rival services. Qantas Group and Virgin have denied they misuse slots.
Sydney airport called for any airline that cancels a flight more than 5% of the time to lose its scheduled slot – tighter than the 20% allowance under current legislation – to deter the major airlines from strategically scheduling then cancelling services out of Sydney to block competitors.
John Sharp, the deputy chairman of Rex, said there was a desperate need to reform the legislation, and questioned whether the major airlines had lobbied federal governments not to act on recommendations designed to crack down on slot hoarding at Sydney.
James Goodwin, the CEO of the Australian Airports Association, warned that Qantas and Virgin’s duopoly was so strong that regulators and governments would find it difficult to intervene on any issues. He said the market dominance – Qantas Group has a 66% share of the domestic aviation market and Virgin holds 29% – was harming consumers.
Separately, Qantas this week denied allegations it was engaging in misleading conduct after promoting a special return fare to London on its website that was scarcely available and which its own sales staff were unable to book for customers.
On Monday, Qantas hit back at the controversy surrounding the Albanese government’s refusal to allow Qatar Airways to almost double its capacity into Australia and suggestions that such action benefits the Australian carrier. It said the “debate on traffic rights completely distorts” market realities.
Qantas had opposed Qatar’s push, which was supported by many in the aviation and tourism sectors and state premiers, who all want downward pressure on international airfares.
In lieu of expanded bilateral air rights, Qatar has been running an additional daily flight into Melbourne via a loophole that forces it to run an onward near-empty flight to Adelaide each day.
