Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce breaks silence after losing $9 million bonus – and makes major confession about his new life

Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has revealed he has been asked to take a year off after leaving the airline in haste. However, Joyce is unwilling to discuss his time at the national carrier.

Speaking outside his $20 million apartment in Sydney’s The Rocks on Thursday, the 58-year-old praised his life after Qantas, but said he was legally barred from discussing what he did at the airline.

When asked directly, “What would you say to Australians who are angry about the damage to Qantas’ reputation and customer service under your leadership?”, Mr Joyce replied: “I’m not allowed to talk about that, I’m not legally allowed to answer that.”

He also declined to comment on the $9 million bonus that was deducted from his paycheck after a scathing review last week accused him of damaging the airline’s reputation.

Mr Joyce, who stood next to his husband Shane Lloyd, spoke cheerfully to Daily Mail Australia about what was to come.

He said he was going to work as a director for the Sydney Theatre Company and do charity work, “but I’ve been told I have to take a year off,” he said, nodding at Mr Lloyd, who smiled.

Mr Joyce and Mr Lloyd also run a scholarship competition under their own name for Australian LGBTQIA+ playwrights who want to work in New York.

Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce (right) and his husband Shane Lloyd (left) said on Thursday that he had been advised to take a year off, but refused to elaborate on his response to Australians’ anger at the national airline.

Alan Joyce, 58, spoke warmly about his life after Qantas, his future plans and taking a break from the corporate world, but said he was limited in discussing his reduced $9 million bonus

Joyce was CEO of Qantas for 15 years, until he stepped down in September last year, amid criticism over cancelled flights, lost luggage and accusations that he was exploiting customers with exorbitant prices.

An investigation last week, commissioned by Qantas and conducted by former McKinsey partner Tom Saar, found that the airline’s reputational damage was largely due to “too much deference” to a long-serving CEO.

“The group had a ‘command and control’ leadership style with centralised decision-making and an experienced and dominant CEO,” the report said.

The investigation found that while there was no intentional misconduct, mistakes by the airline’s management had led to “significant reputational damage and customer service problems”.

Alan Jones was heavily criticised in Qantas’ review of his time at the airline, after which he was stripped of $9.26 million. But speaking outside his $20 million Sydney apartment on Thursday, he refused to comment.

As a result, the national airline reduced Mr Joyce’s bonus by $9.26 million.

An update to Qantas executive remuneration for the 2023 financial year last week showed that Mr Joyce’s long-term incentive of $8.36 million for the 2021-2023 period had been scrapped and his short-term incentive of $900,000 had been cut by a third.

Mr Joyce, an Irish-born Australian from a modest background in Dublin, earned about $150 million during his time at Qantas.

In June last year, Mr Joyce also sold $17 million worth of Qantas shares, just days after the airline provided details of cancelled flights to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

Alan Joyce and his husband Shane plan to combine the penthouse and sub-penthouse apartments into one five-bedroom home, with each bedroom having its own bathroom and offering world-class views

Mr Saar was critical of the move, concluding that ‘there should be additional oversight of share transactions proposed by the CEO and members of the group leadership team’.

Since Mr Joyce left Qantas in September 2023, he and his husband have split their time between their home in Whale Beach and their penthouse apartment in The Rocks.

Mr Joyce bought the luxury five-bedroom home in Whale Beach, which sits on a clifftop overlooking the sea, in 2017.

They also own two apartments in The Rocks: the sub-penthouse and the penthouse above.

While Mr Joyce enjoys his ‘year off’, renovation work is reportedly taking place to convert the space into six en-suite bedrooms, allowing the couple to host family from overseas.

Both apartments offer fantastic views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, and together they are worth over $20 million.

Last month, he and Mr Lloyd sold their stunning waterfront home in the exclusive suburb of Mosman, which comes with its own private jetty.

They bought the property in 2022 for $19 million and spent millions on renovations before selling it for just under $21 million.

Alan Joyce’s mother Colette, pictured above with his late father Maurice, is in her 80s and still lives in his birthplace of Dublin

Mr. Joyce credits his education and work ethic to his parents, who left school at age 12 and worked several jobs thereafter.

His mother, Colette, is in her 80s and a retired swimming pool cleaner in Dublin.

His late father, Maurice Joyce Snr, worked as a postman, glazier and labourer in a tobacco factory.

Mr. Lloyd has family in New Zealand.