Sasha Barbagallo

speaker

629 appearances 7 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 28 Jul

Sasha Barbagallo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 7 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 3.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Briefing · IN FULL: Alan Joyce on running Qantas, lobbying Albo & Lounge secrets · 28 Jul 2026 podcast

You were the CEO during the pandemic very publicly.

What was it like running an airline, especially in those first few months?

Did it feel almost dystopian?

COVID did mark a huge turning point for Qantas, especially in terms of its public perception.

I've seen it described as one of the biggest brand downfalls in Australian history.

Do you now regret any of the decisions which will go through that you made during the pandemic?

Of course.

But that's success for shareholders and for, you know, as opposed to a public perception of how people feel about the national carrier.

You can't deny that that's still in recovery mode.

Yeah.

So you could argue then that the focus, and look, yes, Qantas is a business, but it's also the national carrier.

It has a unique responsibility.

I think most people would agree to not only its shareholders, but the Australian public as well.

And I guess you could argue that there was a focus on protecting profits as opposed to its role within the Australian ecosystem.

There were the issues with outsourcing ground handling jobs, which, you know, did go through fair work and Qantas was found to have acted wrongly in that situation, offering flight credits instead of refunds, which he did backflip on, Qantas did backflip on.

There were job cuts, accepting JobKeeper and billions of dollars in government money, which all the airlines did as a collective to keep the airline afloat.

Then Qantas turns around and reveals that

a $2.47 billion record profit.

I think that's where people feel that there's that disconnect.

But I guess the question is, you know, you don't think that there was a focus on profits over Qantas' role as a national carrier?

Showing 101–120 of 629 · page 6 of 32