Qantas struggling to regain public trust

Remember how it was supposed to get better for Qantas after unpopular CEO Alan Joyce left the company and the country?

It has got worse.

Telecommunications company Optus is once again the most distrusted brand in Australia - for the fourth straight quarter.

But Australia’s national carrier has moved up further in the distrust rankings, into second place in the June 2024 quarter, and overtaking social media giant Facebook/Meta in third.

Imagine being trusted less than Facebook/Meta? 

Qantas will not have endeared itself to loyal customers with news this week that it will hike domestic fees starting next month.

The airline will slug flyers an extra $20 to change or cancel their flight from October 9, with the charge rising from $99 to $119.

While Qantas emphasised that it’s the first time it has adjusted the penalties since 2017, it was not the best timing for the carrier to hike fees.

The trust and distrust rankings are complied quarterly by researchers at Roy Morgan.

Bunnings retained top spot as the most trusted brand in the June quarter - the hardware chain’s third straight quarterly victory atop the rankings with Aldi (2nd) and Kmart (3rd) also unchanged in rankings.

Filling out the top five are Toyota (4th), now just ahead of Apple (5th), 

In the distrust rankings, media giant News Corp was up two spots to seventh (people must have been reading The Australian) while Temu rose eight spots to be the 10th-most distrusted brand.