Copies of the Australian Financial Review have disappeared from Qantas lounges, with the airline reportedly fed up over bad press.
Customers have also claimed articles are no longer discoverable on the airline’s in-house Wi-Fi, The Sydney Morning Herald (owned by Nine Entertainment alongside the AFR) reports.
The move comes despite Qantas signing a deal with the AFR last July to make its digital content available to the airline’s customers in lounges and on flights. It is expected to expire later this year.
The publication’s disappearing act follows recent critical coverage of the airline by the AFR‘s Rear Window columnist Joe Aston, who has often been scathing of the airline and particularly of its outgoing CEO, Alan Joyce.
“It’s disappointing Qantas management has decided to deprive its customers of the country’s best business and finance journalism because it can’t countenance robust criticism,” James Chessell, Nine managing director of publishing, said.
“We’ve been here before with Qantas and as always our editorial independence won’t be affected by commercial pressure.
“The vast majority of people I speak to think Joe’s Qantas coverage is tough but fair.”
Among his criticisms, Aston has skewered Qantas’ efforts to avoid paying tax, the airline’s performance, fare hikes accompanying billion-dollar profits, and Mr Joyce’s accountability for the airline’s issues.
“Stand and applaud yet another masterclass in blame externalisation, revel in the audacity of Mr Joyce’s attempt to renounce his own agency,” Aston wrote in February in response to Mr Joyce’s efforts to explain airfare price hikes.
“Joyce has made hard decisions. Some of these will bear rich fruit over the long term. Others have poisoned the tree,” Aston wrote in March.
“He’s accumulated enough money to want for nothing material. What fills the void after that are the trappings of office and the adulation of his peers. Those are priceless.
“He will never regain the respect of his customers.”
In Aston’s most recent piece, he ridiculed incoming CEO Vanessa Hudson’s assertion that Mr Joyce had taught her to prioritise caring for the airline’s customers.
“Customers know very well that Qantas has been shamelessly gouging them, exploiting its competitive position to rob them blind, to charge the highest prices in history for a product and service that is a shadow of its former self,” he wrote.
On Monday, Aston retweeted an article detailing Qantas’ AFR ban, and said it was “quite an honour” to join journalist Adele Ferguson in Mr Joyce’s “tantrum hall of fame”.
In 2014, Qantas stopped distributing the SMH and The Age on its flights, after Ferguson called for Mr Joyce’s resignation after the airline posted a $2.8 billion loss.
Social media users have largely condemned Qantas’ move, especially since the airline has long ignored calls to get rid of Sky News from its services.
While the airline reportedly ditched the news outlet known for its right-wing stance in 2022, Twitter users say Sky News is still very much present in Qantas lounges.
“Qantas Regional Lounge is forcibly playing Sky News After Dark repeats and it’s just as horrendous as the last time I was forced to overhear it,” one person tweeted.
A Change.org petition to remove Sky News from the airline’s screens has more than 39,000 signatures.
Qantas has been contacted for comment.
