Geoff Dixon won’t remain Qantas CEO past 2009
An AAP report says that Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon speaking on Sky News Business Sunday, has ruled out staying in the cockpit of the national carrier beyond his current term, saying “there is a time to move on”.
Mr Dixon said it was unlikely he would stay beyond his current contract, which ends in July 2009 and Mr Dixon has been at the helm of Qantas since 2000.
“There is a time to move on, and I don’t think the board or myself would contemplate anything after the time we’ve said, unless there is something out there I don’t see,” he said.
“I really do think it would be time to move on”.
“It would almost be nine years I think running the company then, and I was deputy for a couple of years before that.” “I’m not Wal King (Leighton Holdings Ltd chief executive).” “Wal can go on forever, he’s a special breed, but I think I’ve got to do other things.”
Last Thursday, Qantas reported a net profit increase for the 2007 financial year of 49 per cent to $719.4 million, with revenue up 11 per cent to $15.17 billion.
Mr Dixon attributed the result to the airline’s “two brands” strategy, saying low-budget carrier Jetstar had added $250 million to Qantas’ bottom line over the past three years.
He said there was scope for further growth of Jetstar, predicting the low-cost airline would move into international routes abandoned by Qantas because they had become unprofitable.
“We’re obviously moving it into international areas, and it will go into routes where we know Qantas finds it very difficult to make money,” Mr Dixon said.
“Importantly, and I think interestingly for Australia, Jetstar will go back into markets where Qantas pulled out of many years ago, places like Greece and Italy, and I believe they can make that viable with the new aircraft they get in August.” “The Boeing 787s will enable a one stop flight to Athens via Bangkok.”
Mr Dixon said new low-cost airline Tiger, which enters the Australian market in November, had already impacted on Jetstar’s yields.
“Already there is a deterioration in Jetstar’s yields in the second half of the year as they’ve matched Tiger as it’s announced its restructure and started selling,” he said.
“But we just have to make amends for those things and to make sure we can still bring in the result we want to bring in.”
Mr Dixon also refused to apologise to shareholders for the turmoil caused by this year’s failed $11.1 billion private equity bid for the company, which had the full backing of the Qantas board.
“I wouldn’t even consider it,” he said.
“I think what we and our shareholders should be thinking is that they have a very good company.”
“The current board and the current management have been the people, and our people out there, who have created that.” “And we’ve worked very hard at it.”
“I don’t see why anybody should apologise.”
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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