QANTAS: New CEO Vanessa Hudson apology for Qantas performance. Good Start?

I’m going to let this apology by Vanessa Hudson speak largely for itself. The transcript is below the video, with some links to some press commentary below.

Transcript Vanessa Hudson video

Hi, I’m Vanessa Hudson, the new CEO of the Qantas Group.

I know that we have let you down in many ways and for that, I am sorry.

We haven’t delivered the way we should have.

And we’ve often been hard to deal with.

We understand why you’re frustrated and why some of you have lost trust in us.

I know that our people have tried their absolute best under very difficult circumstances.

I want you to know that we’re determined to fix it, to improve the experience for you, and to support our people better. We want to get back to being the national carrier that Australians can be proud of. That’s known for going above and beyond.

We understand we need to earn your trust back, not with what we say, but with what we do and how we behave.

This is going to take time and I ask for your patience.

The work is already underway.

We’re putting more people in our call centres to help solve problems faster.

We’re adding more frequent flyer seats.

We’re reviewing all of our customer policies to make sure they’re fair.

And we’re giving our frontline teams more flexibility to better help you when things don’t go to plan.

That’s only the start.

This has been a humbling period.

But through it, I share the pride and passion that I know our people have for Qantas.

And this gives me the confidence that we will rebuild your trust.

Thank you for your support.

Australian Financial Review article

Sydney Morning Herald article

2PAXfly Takeout

Like Mulder in ‘The X-Files‘, ‘I want to believe’, but haven’t we heard all this before? Didn’t Alan tell us that they had fixed the call centres? Didn’t Alan tell us they had made millions of frequent flyer seats available? I feel like I have heard all this before.

I’m going to maintain my hope, but with a good dash of cynicism.