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Dixon Expects to Run Qantas Past 2007
A Bloomberg report of an interview yesterday with Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon said he’ll probably run Australia’s biggest airline past the end of his term on July 1, 2007.
In the interview in Paris yesterday where he was meeting with fellow CEO’s from the Oneworld airline alliance and attending an International Air Transport Association meeting, he said, “It’s really for the Chairman to say, but I’d expect I’ll be staying longer than the middle of next year.” “I would expect I’ll go into a contract that’s more year-on-year, rather than fixed.”
Dixon, 66, who has led Qantas since 2001, said in February his exit will depend on when the board wants him to go and after he changed the board’s management structure in February, stoking speculation that the company is weighing successors, Chief Financial Officer Peter Gregg said he’d “love’” to have Dixon’s job. John Borghetti is also considered to be strong contender.
Qantas is mid-way through a plan to cut $A3billion from its costs over five years to counter rising fuel expenses, which surged 58% in the six months to December.
Bloomberg commented that Dixon and Gregg are eliminating jobs, reducing agent commissions, switching to more fuel-efficient planes and using the discount carrier Jetstar on low-profit holiday routes, with the carrier’s first-half profit falling 9.6% to $A352.6 million as oil prices rose to a record and it made redundancy payouts to workers.
Dixon has said 2006 profit won’t match last year’s record $A763.3 million and he declined yesterday to comment further to Bloomberg on the forecast.
Qantas has also been steadily increasing its fuel surcharges, saying on April 26 it would raise surcharges by 16% on domestic flights in Australia and New Zealand to $A31 and 23% on international flights to $A98. Dixon said that the extra charges haven’t hurt demand.
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