Qantas Group’s current CEO Alan Joyce will bring forward his retirement by two months to help the company accelerate its renewal, paving the way for CEO designate Vanessa Hudson to assume the role of managing director and group CEO effective September 6, 2023.
Joyce said: “In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me that the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority.
“The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement and hand over to Vanessa and the new management team now, knowing they will do an excellent job.”
In a press statement, Qantas chairman Richard Goyder noted that Joyce “always had the best interests of Qantas front and centre”, and thanked him for his leadership “through some enormous challenges”.
Goyder said: “This transition comes at what is obviously a challenging time for Qantas and its people. We have an important job to do in restoring the public’s confidence in the kind of company we are, and that’s what the Board is focused on, and what the management under Vanessa’s leadership will do.”
As planned, shareholders will formally vote on the appointment of Vanessa Hudson as managing director at Qantas’ Annual General Meeting in November.
With Joyce’s advanced retirement, one of the executive changes announced in June this year will also be accelerated, namely the appointment of Rob Marcolina as the group’s chief financial officer and Hudson’s transition to the group CEO role.
Leveraging AI that can help its airline and travel agency communities, Sabre will complete migrating and moving all of its GDS business to Google Cloud this year.
“Google has the best ability to advance our capabilities in the travel space….and so we’ve been working collaboratively…to figure out how do we leverage our own data and assets, and adapt AI and machine learning for our partners,” said Brett Thorstad, vice president, Sabre Travel Solutions, agency sales, APAC.
Speaking at the Sabre Space Asian roadshow in the Philippines, Thorstad said that in the first years following its 2020 partnership with Google, Sabre launched airline pricing products so carriers can use AI to dynamically price their fares and ancillaries.
He noted that both traditional travel agencies and OTAs, which value automation, could also benefit from AI use.
Hence, Sabre launched this month the Lodging AI that offers up to 20 alternatives when a hotel is sold out or a search criteria is not met. Additionally, the Schedule Change Predictor of flight cancellations and disruptions can be used to create and offer travel itineraries. Both products are available on the Sabre Red 360 platform.
While the GDS is traditionally known for air content, today the most addressable types of content is air followed by hotel, car rental, cruise and tours.
“We’re looking at ways to add more content into the GDS,” said Thorstad.
“Bringing (more content) into the GDS, into a single shopping request, and having it all bookable into the same portal will be hugely beneficial for our (agency) community,” he said.
“We do see a potential for the future where anything can be sold through our platform,” he added.
Further, Thorstad also shared insights into the industry. He said airline seat capacity is recovering and almost back to normal, but travel agency GDS bookings are not growing as quickly; most bookings come from the corporate travel side.
Thorstad pointed out that the work-from-home environment has complicated the corporate travel market. Corporates are booking less frequently as they reduce day trips and become more intentional about travel. On the bright side, business travellers are taking longer trips.
As a percentage of corporate travel bookings, business class and premium economy seats are selling better now than in 2019, he said.