“Andrew has carefully led the corporate affairs function for both Qantas and Jetstar through a number of challenging periods as well as some very positive ones, and he leaves with our sincere thanks and best wishes,” said CEO Vanessa Hudson.

In a statement, McGinnes said it has been an “absolute privilege” to work at Qantas Group for more than a decade.

“Qantas is typically one of the most mentioned brands in the country and that will no doubt continue because of the important role it plays in national life and the connection that Australians have to it,” he said.

McGinnes, alongside then-Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce and Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully, fronted the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living in August last year, where it was revealed that Jetstar was holding around $100 million in unused COVID-19 flight credits over and above the approximately $370 million in credit Qantas held for its own flights.

Additionally, when pressed, the Qantas executives present admitted that there were also tens of millions of dollars in credit from Qantas overseas bookings that have not been counted in the $370 million figure, though could not give an exact amount.

McGinnes at the time said Qantas had not been trying to hide the figures around COVID credits.

“There’s been no lack of transparency. We have been giving figures throughout around the credits, to the point where we’ve been giving a lot of detail … what the value is of the credits and where the preponderance is,” he told the committee.

Qantas later ditched the deadline on redemptions for its flight credits, allowing Qantas customers to obtain cash refunds with no time limit and Jetstar customers to redeem credits for flights indefinitely.

Along with Alan Joyce, who moved up his retirement by two months in September, other senior Qantas figures including Loyalty division CEO Olivia Wirth and chairman Richard Goyder have headed for the exits in the past few months.