Qantas boss retires after allegations the airline sold tickets for canceled flights

abcnews.go.com:

The boss of Australian airline Qantas says he will leave his job immediately — two months earlier than planned — following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been c...

CANBERRA, Australia — The boss of Australian airline Qantas said Tuesday he would leave his job immediately — two months earlier than planned — following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been canceled.

Chief Executive Alan Joyce said that after 15 years running the national carrier he was bringing forward his planned retirement date.

The airline said Vanessa Hudson would take over as managing director and group chief executive from Wednesday.

The announcement came after a difficult few weeks for Qantas and Joyce. He was grilled by Australian senators last week on flight delays and costs, while a consumer watchdog group announced Thursday it was taking legal action against Qantas and would seek a penalty that would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission said it was taking the action after Qantas “engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights that it had already canceled but not removed from sale.”

The commission said that in many cases, Qantas continued selling tickets or delayed telling ticketholders the flights had been canceled. That often led customers to have less time to make alternative arrangements and to potentially pay higher prices for new flights, the commission said.

Qantas previously acknowledged its standards had fallen well short of expectations as the