Vanessa Hudson back in business (class)

Vanessa Hudson is back where she belongs. That is, at the pointy end of the plane. She was spotted on Friday flying business class on QF1507 from Sydney to Canberra.

On the day she was appointed, the new Qantas chief had made a point of flying economy. The PR stunt was prominently reported, the rookie CEO apparently aware that “every decision she made, even picking the class of cabin she flew, was being judged”. Evidently, that didn’t last.

Few top CEOs fly economy, but some do, particularly when flying domestically. Alan Joyce did it – at least once – to demonstrate the safety of flying during the pandemic, and Hudson made a point of it on her first day in a bid to set a new, humbler tone.

But that was only ever going to raise eyebrows once she returned to flying in the manner to which, as a longstanding Qantas executive, she has surely been long accustomed.

Asked about whether the new chief had continued flying economy – or, indeed, had done so again after experiencing the indignity in early September – a Qantas spokesman told us Hudson flew in all cabins, and even on Jetstar from time to time. Once in a blue moon, no doubt.