Despite protests from some shareholders, board members Todd Sampson, Belinda Hutchinson, Heather Smith and Doug Parker were all re-elected.

In what is one of the most anticipated AGMs of the year, Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson and chair Richard Goyder faced an intense backlash from investors over a string of controversies that have hammered the airline’s reputation.

Prior to the meeting, large shareholders and all proxy adviser services revealed their opposition to the airline’s remuneration report that gifts former Qantas boss Alan Joyce a final pay packet of $21.4m.

“The board needs to have accountability for its actions and the issues that have happened under its watch,” Australian Shareholders Association chief executive Rachel Waterhouse said prior to meeting.

Ms Waterhouse has instructed shareholders to vote against allowing Ms Hudson to be eligible for Qantas’ long-term bonuses.

The ASA chief has also recommended that Ms Hudson should not be made a Qantas board director, a push that overwhelmingly failed after Ms Hudson received the support of 99.2 per cent of proxy voters. She will never be put up for re-election during her tenure as Qantas Group chief executive.

Chairman Richard Goyder has already announced he will exit the embattled airline in the next 12 months alongside board members Jaqueline Hey and Maxine Brenner. Non-executive director Michael L’Estrange will retire at Friday’s meeting.

Mr Goyder acknowledges ‘things we got wrong

Kicking off the annual general meeting, Mr Goyder acknowledged that the national carrier had failed to meet customers’ expectations.

“It’s clear there has been a substantial loss of trust in the national carrier, and we understand why. There are things we got wrong. Things we should have handled better. Things we should have fixed, faster. And for all of those, we apologise,” he said.

Ahead of an expected investor backlash over the airline’s remuneration report, Mr Goyder said he had spoken to several shareholders.

“It’s clear that there will be an overwhelming vote against our remuneration report, which is almost a complete reversal of the 90-plus per cent support in recent years,” Goyder said.

“Please know this: We hear the message this strong vote sends, particularly in response to broader frustration with past events, and it galvanises our efforts to restore your confidence.”

Selling ghost flights not ‘for commercial gain’

Responding to the ACCC’s investigation into allegations Qantas sold tickets for flights that had already been cancelled, Mr Goyder said the airline’s post-pandemic restart had proved more challenging than anticipated.

“Fundamentally, staffing and supply chain issues in the first half of 2022, exacerbated by the impact of Omicron, meant we just didn’t have the resourcing we thought we would have to operate our schedule,” he said

Mr Goyder said the airline had made large cuts to flights to stabilise operations and that resulted in thousands of cancelled flights.

“We acknowledge there were some delays in communicating with our customers. This wasn’t done for commercial gain but to give us time to find alternative flights for our passengers either on Qantas or other carriers,” he said.

In its defence filed earlier this week, Qantas said its customers were purchasing a “bundle of rights” as opposed to a specific flight when they booked travel.

Still $520 million in outstanding flight credits

There are still $520m worth of pandemic-era flight credits that Qantas is yet to return to travellers, Ms Hudson has revealed.

“The balance is coming down. So in August it was $750m … it‘s (now) $520m,” Ms Hudson said.

“As a leadership team we are focused on making sure that all credits are either redeemed or refunded to customers.

Ms Hudson said redeeming the flight credits was an “ongoing effort” and Qantas had boosted the number of staff in its call centres to expedite refunds.

Customers with Qantas flight credits are able to claim a cash refund at any time after the airline scrapped the expiry in August.

‘Shame on you’: Goyder met with jeers

Responding to fiery questioning over the approval granted to Mr Joyce to sell about 80 per cent of his shares amid an investigation from the competition watchdog, Mr Goyder cut off the microphone.

Mr Goyder’s intervention was subsequently met with jeers from the shareholders in the audience, who shouted “shame on you”.

“I have absolutely zero concern about the ethics of the people here,” Mr Goyder said, claiming that Mr Joyce’s share sale complied with Qantas’ disclosure requirements.

On July 23, Mr Joyce received approval to sell the vast majority of his shares in the airline for $6.34 a share. Since then the share price has plunged 22 per cent.

Qantas scandals stack up

Public anger against the national carrier came to a head in August when Qantas revealed a super-sized $2.47bn pre-tax profit result while it slashed costs and struggled to offer adequate customer service.

A class-action lawsuit over pandemic-era refunds, an ACCC investigation over selling cancelled “ghost flight” fares, and the refusal to repay $2.5bn in government subsidies added to the airline’s woes.

A separate High Court ruling in September upheld a Federal Court decision that found the airline illegally sacked 1700 workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The retrenched staff are expected to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.

The airline’s role in lobbying the federal government against an application from Qatar Airways to increase the number of flights to east coast capitals has also received intense criticism.