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‘I know I’m a polarising figure’: Alan Joyce on Qantas, reputational collapse and his legacy

Alan Joyce was once one of Australia’s most admired business leaders.

By the time he left Qantas, he had become one of the country’s most hated men.

Joyce’s final years at the helm of the airline were marked by unlawful sackings, cancelled flights, withheld refunds and a collapse in public trust. But in a new memoir, Riding the Jet Stream, he defends many of the decisions that made him a symbol of corporate arrogance and public distrust.

Today, the former Qantas chief executive on what he believes Australians got wrong about him – and whether he accepts responsibility for the damage to the Qantas brand on his watch.

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