Qantas slashes senior management incentives following July cyber incident

Australian airline Qantas has reportedly slashed annual bonuses of senior executives by as much as 15 percent after a serious cybersecurity incident in July compromised the data of about 5.7 million customers.

The airline announced this week that short-term bonuses of the executive management, including chief executive officer Vanessa Hudson, will be reduced by 15% to recognise the seriousness of the security incident that occurred in July.

Qantas group chairman John Mullen said that the airline recorded profit before tax of $2.39 billion in the 2025 financial year, but executive management incentives were still reduced to recognise then impact the cyber incident had on customers.

"Despite the strong performance, the Board decided to reduce annual bonuses by 15 percentage points as a result of the impact the cyber incident had on our customers," said Qantas group chairman John Mullen.

"This reflects their shared accountability, while acknowledging the ongoing efforts to support customers and put in place additional protections for customers," he added. According to the airline, CEO Hudson will see a $250,000 reduction to her annual incentive.

The cyber security incident involved hackers gaining access to a third-party platform used by one of Qantas’ airline contact centres and accessing over 4 million customer records, including names, email addresses, and Qantas Frequent Flyer details. 

"Our absolute focus since the incident has been to understand what data has been compromised for each of the 5.7 million impacted customers and to share this with them as soon as possible," Hudson said in July.