Joe Aston’s book persuasively outlines the reasons under-pinning the reputational downfall of Qantas, a once highly respected Australian company. In this engaging book, Aston lays bare the way in which greed and distorted loyalties influenced boardroom and top management decisions to the detriment of the travelling public. It should be compulsory reading for all boards, CEOs, politicians, and senior bureaucrats, for it helps to explain the growing lack of trust in senior business figures, politicians, public servants, and the heads of independent integrity-related agencies. The Chairman’s Lounge also details the public’s disdain for those who are paid exorbitant sums of money and extravagant bonuses to run big businesses in this country – Qantas in particular.

Nearly everyone in Australia has a story about bad airline service, and many of those stories involve Qantas, whose ‘mishandled bag rate’ recently doubled and flight cancellations tripled. The formerly smooth and efficient Sydney-Melbourne run is now a dispiriting ordeal.