Reviewing The Qantas Board Charter

Qantas’ downfall in sales/gearing in 2009 due to the GFC. This year Qantas’ decided not to pay dividends and instead took the retained profits and spent the capital on new aircraft and renewal within the business in order to increase revenue.

Established in 1920, Qantas is the world's 11th largest airline and the 2nd oldest. It was founded in the Queensland outback as the Queensland and Northern territory Aerial Service (QANTAS) Limited, by pioneer aviators Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinness and Fergus McMaster. Qantas was a former government owned business; it did not view profits or efficiency as its prime goal. In 1993 a 25% stake was sold to British Airways. Qantas was privatised in 1995 and has had to adopt management practices to overcome both internal and external influences and had to change its narrow-minded culture. Although Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air freight is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas

Because the Board of Directors only meets four times a year, the day-to-day operations are managed by a Chief Executive Officer. The CEO has appointed five Chiefs as his

1. Member Board of Directors – Each Director serves for three-year terms and may be reelected. There are 21 members currently serving on the Board.

On October 22nd, 2001, the Industrial dispute between QANTAS and its employees was initiated with the offering of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. This proposed an 18-month wage freeze for employees plus a sliding scale profit share scheme. Ten out of twelve unions under QANTAS accepted the terms of the agreement, barring the unions of manufacturing employees (AWU and AMWU). They were holding out for a 4-6% pay rise. On the 8th May 2002, some ten months later, the dispute was resolved when QANTAS agreed to an across the board 6% pay increase. This essay provides an in-depth analysis into the dispute, including causes, the resolution process, the role of stakeholders, and costs and benefits for all concerned.

Rivalry among industry competitors has caused attention to be focused on tariff levels. Airfare prices were at an all time low in 2009. This suggested a strong competitive rivalry based on price differentiation. This price differentiation will cause a dramatic loss in revenue if these prices continue to drop and this would lead to a reduced competitiveness. In an effort to safeguard revenue and reduce expenditure, Qantas has developed a strategy to deal with a change in the external competitive environment. .

The weakness of Qantas lies in the management and their lack of investment in their employees. The management weakness can be seen in many of the financial and operational issues. Qantas faces several Industrial disputes which the company’s competitors do not experience. These issues affect the interior structure and the external opportunities to gain new customers. This also makes this their biggest

1) Qantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia, it is also the largest airline in Australia. The Qantas Group’s principal business is providing domestic and international air transport services for passengers. Additionally, Qantas owns several subsidiary companies such as Jetstar and QantasLink that also operates flights to domestic and international locations, and Q Catering, a premium full service flight caterer.

Founded in Queensland Australia in 1920, Qantas has now become Australia 's biggest name in relation to domestic and international airline. Originally registered as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS). Qantas is widely regarded as one of the world 's top airlines and one of the strongest brands in Australia. Over the years it has managed to build a reputation for excellence in

These main business objectives help the airline to focus on deliver quality services of the customers. Qantas main business is passengers transports and it is the world’s second oldest airlines. Qantas group operates approx 5600 flights in a weak in 59 cities of regional areas. Internationally, the group operates around 970 flights (Qantas-630 and Jetstar-340) in 44 counties 182 destinations. Moreover, through operations the group focused on five key elements that are right aircraft or right

The main focus of this report is to identify the legal classification, the characteristics, the life cycle stage of Qantas and one internal and external stakeholder that is affected by the activates of Qantas. The legal classification describes that Qantas is a public company and has changed its legal classification in the growth and maturity stages of the business life cycle. The characteristics of Qantas talks about the company's industrial classification and sector classification. The business life cycle is explained and gives reason why Qantas is in the renewal stage of post maturity. There is also description of one internal and external

The Board of the Company consists of 11 (eleven) Independent Directors and 2 (two) Inside Directors. They have expertise in the areas of business, finance, law, audit and public companies.

Through s Porters Five Forces analysis (Figure 1 – Appendices) the greatest threat for Qantas is the rivalry. Qantas is taking advantage of this opportunity as through the alliance it creates greater certainty for the shareholders while also being able to increase its numbers in international routes to 33 one-stop destinations in Europe in addition to 31 one-stop destinations in the Middle East and North Africa (Ryan, 2012). Additionally, as competition was putting pressure on the market while Qantas was restricted by financial reasons, this alliance came as a great opportunity. Furthermore, from 31st of March Qantas frequent flier point users were able to book Emirates flights while the customers’ high status with Qantas was recognized at Emirates as well. Lastly, on European, Asian and African destinations Qantas mirrored Emirates baggage policies (from 20kg to 30kg) (Panaus Travel, 2013).

It is essential that the role, duties and responsibilities of directors are clearly defined. The Combined Code (2006) states that “the board’s role is to provide entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls which enables risk to be assessed and managed”.

Joshua Kennon (2007), stated that “The board of directors is the highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded company and is usually made up of the directors who are elected for a specific number of years by the shareholders”. According to Wikipedia,” A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization”.