Greg Norman has never been one to hold back on issues dear to him.
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Norman → hold → him
Whether supporting President Donald Trump, or criticising the PGA, the Great White Shark doesn’t shy away from taking a stand.
But his recent sub-par experience on Qantas has touched a nerve with the flying public.
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experience → support → public
As Norman puts it: “I have always tried to support my national airline Qantas.
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I → put → airline
Sadly, their reputation of the ‘never on-time’ airline... now has me looking elsewhere.”
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me → have → airline
Norman’s frustration centres on the late departure of a Sydney-Dallas flight on Saturday.
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frustration → centre → Saturday
Qantas confirmed the flight arrived 2 hours and 35 minutes later than scheduled while “engineers fixed a fuelling issue”.
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engineers → confirm → issue
But Norman’s anger speaks for regular Qantas customers, too, delayed for hours on their travels.
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anger → speak → travels
Only two weeks earlier, a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney had been delayed overnight “due to operational requirements”.
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flight → delay → requirements
Norman’s grievance gains some traction when you consider that against the backdrop of delays, Qantas has been tripping over itself to show off its on-time-performance improvements.
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Qantas → gain → improvements
In July, global aviation firm OAG ranked Qantas Airways the most on-time major airline.
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OAG → rank → time
At the time Qantas Domestic CEO Markus Svensson said that “there has been a huge amount of work to improve our reliability”.
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Svensson → say → reliability
By September, Qantas had slipped to the No. 5 spot in the OAG tally.
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Qantas → slip → tally
Qantas domestic on time performance continues to firm, with its August on-time-performance hitting 83.5 per cent, above Virgin Australia at 81.2 per cent, and Qantas-owned Jetstar at 76.7 per cent.
Yet, the scale of competition the Flying Roo faces from overseas rivals puts Qantas customer service into relief.
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Roo → continue → relief
In the 2026, Skytrax World Airline Award, a survey of the annual airline customer satisfaction, Qantas failed again to crack to the top ten.
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Qantas → fail → ten
Before its annus horribilis of 2022, Qantas had regularly ranked in the top five.
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Qantas → rank → five
Singapore Airlines, a major competitor for international Aussie travellers, took out the number one spot in 2026.
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Airlines → take → 2026
The ranking, as well as the delays, raises the question about why some national carriers have retained high customer service levels and perceptions, while other struggle to live up to their past.
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other → raise → past
There is a double-edged to the Qantas brand - a commercial enterprise with a legacy of being a carrier that represents not just the business interests, but the identity of a nation.
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that → be → nation
In fact, while the public is largely happy with Qantas customer service and crew, operational issues remain.
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issues → remain → service
The fleet being renewed but old planes still fly.
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planes → renew → ?
Norman, a former brand ambassador for Qantas, would have waited in Sydney in some comfort.
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Norman → wait → comfort
If, for example, you are waiting but fully connected to the internet you can go on with your affairs.
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you → wait → affairs
But if you’re waiting and you’re in an internet-dead zone, somewhat like being on the V/Line train struck at Lara, Victoria, well, that’s a much harder consumer experience to accept.
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that → wait → Lara
Norman mentions the new front in airline competition by name twice: WiFi.
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Norman → mention → name
He questions how Qantas can’t offer fast WiFi “in this day and age with the cost/ticket”.
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Qantas → question → ticket
Qantas provides Viasat internet service...and a map to show the level of connections across destinations.
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Qantas → provide → destinations
As the golfer observes about Qantas’ Trans-Pacific wifi offering: “#insane #dated.”
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golfer → observe → offering
Particularly as major Qantas competitors such as Qatar and Emirates are offering a blanket of superfast WiFi through Starlink.
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competitors → offer → Starlink
Qantas has been contacted for comment.
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Qantas → contact → comment
The curse of expectations for Qantas is shared by the other legacy national carriers like British Airways and American Airlines, and past would-be carriers.
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curse → share → Airways
A colleague explained to me that it was nearly impossible to publish stories about British Airways without attracting hate mail from readers.
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it → explain → readers
These airlines are burdened with the weight of national nostalgia, and rose-coloured memories of the time when air travel itself was a luxurious rarity.
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travel → burden → time
Heck, British Airways used to fly the Concorde.
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Airways → use → Concorde
But it’s worth considering that somehow the curse of national carrier legacy is not shared by the likes of Singapore Airlines, or the younger Emirates or Qatar Airways.
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curse → ’ → Airlines
Norman’s grievance raises the question: where does Qantas lie?
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Qantas → raise → question
The reality is: we want Qantas to be a modern national carrier, with crisp, efficient operations that don’t leave customers hanging.
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that → want → customers
As Norman’s Instagram lament asked: what happened?
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what → ask → ?
He noted that the ground staff was “excellent” but urged Qantas bosses to “get to work and bring back the pride in”.
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staff → note → pride
The public is hearing about the esteemed golfer’s complaint not just because of his big name and sizeable following, but because high-profile figures are firmly on the radar of Qantas’ sophisticated social media team.
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public → hear → team
Up to 80 per cent of Qantas’ social media interactions are driven either by flight disruptions affecting the masses or by high-value VIP flyers—the Greg Normans of the world.
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cent → drive → world
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
