Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has opened for the first time after stepping away from the role, admitting he “got things wrong” during his tenure at the national airline.

It has been more than five years since Qantas announced the redundancies of 1820 people in a move the courts ruled unlawful. Most still haven’t been compensated.

Taking the blame for a chaotic post-COVID era, Joyce conceded that the airline struggled with soaring airfares and illegal job cuts, in comments made to media.