QF CEO Interview

[awilcockson]

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's revealing interview about coming out and having cancer | News.com.au

He also defended his $5 million salary saying pilots are paid more on an hourly basis.

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This has to be the worst argument I've ever heard ... how many hours exactly does he claim to work?

edit: from something jb747 posted previously, I believe that Captain's salary tops out around $500K. And there wouldn't be many on the top amount.

So Joyce is saying that he works 10 times as many hours as the top paid Pilots. Even on a conservative 20 hour a week roster for a pilot, that still puts his claim at 200 hours a week!

 

[dk4]

Even on a conservative 20 hour a week roster for a pilot, that still puts his claim at 200 hours a week!

LOL 25 hours a day, 8 days a week - just like those people who put in 110-120% effort.

 

[awilcockson]

LOL 25 hours a day, 8 days a week

Yeah he really should start to pull his weight

 

[awilcockson]

Working backwards .. There are 168 hours in a week.

So let's assume that AJ works every single hour.

That means that the QF pilots on $500K (nominal) are only working 16.8 hours a week. Does anyone find that a little difficult to believe.

Me thinks there is some very creative accounting going on when he defines "working", i.e. ignoring training, time in the sim, time on a plane but in crew rest etc

 

[markis10]

I dont put my life in AJs hands when I fly QF, yet he gets paid more.......and all I get in return is reduced places to actually fly QF and increased QF group operations with crew that are not Australian. I am glad I still call Australia home, even if QF appears to do so less often these days.

 

[awilcockson]

I dont put my life in AJs hands when I fly QF, yet he gets paid more.......

Well not directly anyway.

You do trust that he will make sounds judgements regarding aircraft maintenance, staff recruitment, training, work hours etc ... all of which contribute to the safety of the flight.

But I get your point. It's the guy(s) in the pointy end of the plane that ultimately determine if you make it to your destination in one piece.

 

[yo yo ma]

I agree that his pay packet is in line with other CEOs but it was the wrong tact to try to bring his rate down to an hourly one.

 

[NM]

LOL 25 hours a day, 8 days a week - just like those people who put in 110-120% effort.

When crossing time zones its possible to work >24 hours in a day. I found a bug in our time recording system that would not allow me to log >24 hours against a single date, even though it possible with crossing timezones and IDL.

Now I hope AJ was not implying that pilots only "work" at each end of the flight and are not "working" during the cruise :shock:. Is he trying to ignite another round of industrial disputes?

 

[AVC]

Lets make the maths even simpler:

$5,000,000 annual, divied by 365 (days), equals $13,698 per day

divide that by 24 hours = $570 per hour

This is of course assuming he works 24/7

Realistically (well, stretching it), lets say he gets one day off per fortnight and works 18 hour days:

$5,000,000 / 339 = $14,749

divided by 18 = $819 per hour.

So which pilots get over $800 per hour?

Even a Super-uber Training Check Captain Instructor on $500K, that worked only 20 hours per week would still "only" have an hourly rate of $480

I'm not sure a CEO with such a bad grasp of mathematics should be in charge of an airline.

 

[samh004]

Was he actually paid $5 million in cash, or is some of it in stock grants that don’t vest for a while? In such a case, the actual figure could be much less, and dependant on how he performs!

Either way, does seem like a silly comment, though I’m sure a lot of the things he’s overseeing make for some pretty intense work.

I'm not sure a CEO with such a bad grasp of mathematics should be in charge of an airline.

Isn’t that what the CFO and accountants are for?

 

[Hvr]

Lets make the maths even simpler:

$5,000,000 annual, divied by 365 (days), equals $13,698 per day

divide that by 24 hours = $570 per hour

This is of course assuming he works 24/7

Realistically (well, stretching it), lets say he gets one day off per fortnight and works 18 hour days:

$5,000,000 / 339 = $14,749

divided by 18 = $819 per hour.

So which pilots get over $800 per hour?

Even a Super-uber Training Check Captain Instructor on $500K, that worked only 20 hours per week would still "only" have an hourly rate of $480

I'm not sure a CEO with such a bad grasp of mathematics should be in charge of an airline.

Isn't AJ a trained actuary or something similar?

Also, he doesn't have to pass a medical and gruelling test every six months like the pilots have do to keep his job.

I reckon the route to be a pilot at QFi has at least as many, if not more hurdles than the route to being CEO.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Working backwards .. There are 168 hours in a week.

So let's assume that AJ works every single hour.

That means that the QF pilots on $500K (nominal) are only working 16.8 hours a week. Does anyone find that a little difficult to believe.

Me thinks there is some very creative accounting going on when he defines "working", i.e. ignoring training, time in the sim, time on a plane but in crew rest etc

I think by international regulations pilots and crew are allowed to work 90 hours a month and 900 hours a year. So 16.8 hours a week is not that far off.

 

[markis10]

I think by international regulations pilots and crew are allowed to work 90 hours a month and 900 hours a year. So 16.8 hours a week is not that far off.

You are confusing flying time with employment time though.

 

[dajop]

Isn't AJ a trained actuary or something similar?

Also, he doesn't have to pass a medical and gruelling test every six months like the pilots have do to keep his job.

I reckon the route to be a pilot at QFi has at least as many, if not more hurdles than the route to being CEO.

These arguments comparing pilots to CEOs are torturous and superfluous. AJ's bad for doing it in the first place and encouraging others to do likewise. You could make the same argument about any business and it's frontline employees.

We always comment/hear that pilots are ultimately responsible for our safety. They are, and not being disrespectful to the pilots, they also fit within a broader structure where the management (including CEO) and other employees (eg engineering) have important roles to play in the safety of passengers. When poorly skilled pilots have accidents or near misses, it's not just - or not even -the skills of the individual pilots that are questioned, its the whole management of the airline that is questioned (how it manages its pilots, how it manages its maintenance and engineering etc). Comparisons in pays of the two types of employees are futile.

 

[harvyk]

There can only be one defence for a CEO's pay packet, and that is that they themselves have brought in more business as a direct result of them being there, and that their pay packet is a reflection of that. This is through spearheading initiatives that drive more customers towards using the company and it's products. Quite frankly, AJ has done a terrible job at that.

OK I haven't heard everything that AJ has said about QF, but for the most part all I hear is excuses. He IMHO has made excuses about unions, about other airlines, about natural disasters, everything under the sun to explain why QF is doing badly (and IMHO, compared to most airlines out there, it's not really doing badly at all, and yet at each time I've heard him talk, he has been saying a "woe is me" story. I have yet to hear of any great announcements on what QFi will be doing to get back the market share from all the other carriers (inc JQ), and no, throwing an A380 onto an existing route doesn't cut it.

Where he has been positive he has talked about setting up another airline, rather than focus on the one he has, he seems to have grand visions without being able to look at the day to day. It's all well and good looking at a 5 year plan, but if you don't look after customers in the here and now, you won't have an airline in 5 years time to make those grand plans come to fruition.

Just my 2c

 

[samh004]

It sounds very much like he should be CEO of a parent company that oversees Qantas, Jetstar and others, much like IAG. Then he can leave Qantas in someone else’s hands to revamp.

 

[harvyk]

It sounds very much like he should be CEO of a parent company that oversees Qantas, Jetstar and others, much like IAG. Then he can leave Qantas in someone else’s hands to revamp.

Disagree...

AJ is not the right person to have in QF full stop right now. If you look at his history, where he has shined is in the business of building new LCC airlines, that is what he is good at.
If you look at his attempt to get RedQ off the ground using a typically LCC aircraft, whilst pretty much ignoring QF issues until it reached grounding point, it makes me think that his passion lies not with running a full service airline, but with setting up new LCC's.

 

[Leumas]

Whether the statement is true or not, it's a silly comment to make. Once you quote numbers, people (as shown in this thread) will find a way to disprove it.

 

[elbarto]

Disagree...

AJ is not the right person to have in QF full stop right now. If you look at his history, where he has shined is in the business of building new LCC airlines, that is what he is good at.
If you look at his attempt to get RedQ off the ground using a typically LCC aircraft, whilst pretty much ignoring QF issues until it reached grounding point, it makes me think that his passion lies not with running a full service airline, but with setting up new LCC's.

It's the Irish I tell ya. Look at Ryanair, Aer Lingus is now an LCC, Willie Walsh did a good job of turning BA into an LCC before he was 'promoted' to CEO of IAG.


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[smit0847]

I also thought the 'per hour' comment was a really stupid thing to say. I immediately thought 'hang on, that doesnt sound right'

JB has said he often does the MEL-LHR and SYD-LHR legs. By Joyces calculations of a max of 16.8 hours a week, it would take him almost 3 weeks to do a return SYD-LHR trip. And that's assuming Joyce does not ever sleep, eat, see his partner etc the 24/7 he works.

Im guessing JB completes a LHR return in slightly less than 3 weeks?!?

I think Joyce would make a great CEO of Jetstar as he is obviously talented and passionate about the low-cost model. He would be invaluable for the roll-out of the 787 and the expansion of JQ international. He should let someone else rebuild Qantas.