Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) shares are up 1.5% in Tuesday trading as we head into the lunch hour.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) airline stock closed yesterday trading for $6.28 per share. Shares are currently changing hands for $6.38 apiece.

That’s today’s price action for you.

Now, what’s this about a new contender for the top job?

A three-way race for the top job?

Qantas shareholders won’t know for some time yet who’ll be taking over the reins of the ASX 200 airline.

Long-standing CEO Alan Joyce has reiterated that he will remain in the top post until “at least” the end of this year.

But that’s not stopping analysts from speculating.

The two most likely candidates to date were Vanessa Hudson, Qantas chief financial officer, and Olivia Wirth, the CEO of Qantas Loyalty.

Now they’ve been joined by a new potential contender, Cameron Wallace, a former executive at Air New Zealand.

This comes as Qantas returns the management of its domestic and international segments to two separate portfolios, requiring two CEOs. The two segments, which were combined during the pandemic, will be separated commencing 1 July.

It also comes with the announcement that the current CEO of the combined Qantas Domestic and International portfolio, Andrew David, is retiring in September.

Wallace will take over as CEO of Qantas International and Freight from 1 July.

David will stay on as CEO of Qantas Domestic until his retirement. Qantas said it will soon commence a recruitment process for a new CEO of Qantas Domestic, to take over from David in September.

“At the start of the pandemic, we rationalised the two CEO roles for Qantas Domestic and Qantas International down to one given what was happening to our business,” Joyce said.

Joyce added:

With Andrew retiring and given the amount of investment now in the pipeline, it makes sense to again have separate CEOs for the International and Domestic businesses, which are both back to generating billions in revenue each year…

The Qantas Group has always been able to attract top talent and Cam Wallace is one of the best airline executives in the region.

Wallace said Qantas is “the world leader in opening up direct international routes, and Project Sunrise is one of the most exciting things happening in aviation”.

How have Qantas shares been faring?

As you can see on the chart below, Qantas shares have strongly outperformed over the past 12 months, up 26%.

The post Own Qantas shares? Guess who just joined the race to be the next CEO appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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