QANTAS TURMOIL:
Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is believed to have escaped Australia in a top-secret operation to ensure he eluded protests against him at airports around the nation.
Video footage from security cameras at Sydney’s Kingsford-Smith International Airport (main picture) is believed to show Mr Joyce in disguise making his way to a boarding gate for a Qatar Airways flight out of the country.
Mr Joyce, who was due to end his 15-year tenure as Qantas CEO in November, has been under fire on a range of fronts and recently bowed to public criticism of his controversial corporate leadership by quitting his CEO job early.
A spokesperson for the Aviation Luggage Hurlers’ Union (ALHU) said the airport video footage showed Mr Joyce may have broken through picket lines established at international airports around the nation by unions, disgruntled Qantas and Jetstar passengers, shareholders and current and former staff.
The ALHU spokesperson said the pickets were established in a bid to prevent Mr Joyce and any Qantas board members leaving Australia before “answering for their actions”.
But he conceded Mr Joyce may have tricked the protestors and had now likely left Australia.
“The person shown in the video checked in with a first-class ticket to Dublin, claiming to be a young girl called ‘Joyce Alan’ flying there to participate in an international primary school Irish dancing competition,” the ALHU spokesperson said.
“In an apparent effort to make the story more believable, the passenger had been listed as travelling as an unaccompanied child, which is a bit unusual for someone on a first-class ticket.
“I understand that cabin staff began to have doubts about the story when they heard the passenger in question tell another passenger that her husband would be joining her in Ireland as soon as he could.
“Their doubts grew when the so-called child threw aside the colouring-in books they had been provided and demanded a stiff Irish whiskey before take-off and ordered the flight attendant to leave the bottle with her and bring more ice.
“In addition, passport and immigration staff at Kingsford-Smith gave the so-called young girl’s paperwork extra scrutiny when they noticed that in the box declaring how much Australian currency she was taking out of the country she had written $24 million but had crossed it out and inserted ‘TBA’.
“But in the end they had no reason to hold her and so she was free to get on the plane,” the ALHU spokesperson said.
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