And I think we all remember he really campaigned heavily in favour of same sex marriage. Samantha Hawley: There were sort of two sides to him, wasn't there? Because there was the businessman and then there was the human. And you had this charming man and little portent of quite the divisive figure he would become in Australian society over the years. And he was charming, he had that wonderful Irish lilt. Samantha Hawley: It was pretty progressive. And now we have the first female and it's a credit to the board.

Okay, so when he was appointed, it was quite a moment, really, a gay Irishman taking over the Australian carrier.Īlan Joyce: And it's a credit to this country that a gay Irish man was appointed 15 years ago to be CEO of the company. Samantha Hawley: Yeah, he's a stayer for sure. We usually see CEOs turnover about every 4 or 5 years. 15 years as CEO by the time he departs, Sam, which by the standards of corporate Australia is remarkable longevity. Stephen Long: It almost seems like he's been there forever. Stephen, Alan Joyce, he'll be gone by the end of the year from Qantas, but my gosh, he's been there for a long time, hasn't he? Today, investigative reporter Stephen Long on how Alan Joyce changed our national carrier and whether our flying experience will improve now he's going. Now the man at the helm is on his way out. But in recent years we've had much more of a love hate relationship with Qantas. We used to think of it as the spirit of Australia. Samantha Hawley: Hi, I'm Sam Hawley, coming to you from Gadigal Land.

The long flight home by alan hlad