Embattled Qantas chairman Richard Goyder is standing firm, despite growing pressure for him to quit as the airline faces a consumer and investor backlash.

Goyder on Thursday made his first public comments since the consumer watchdog launched legal action alleging Qantas sold tickets on thousands of “ghost flights”, and it emerged that recently departed CEO Alan Joyce pocketed more than $20 million in his last year.

Goyder told the ABC’s The World Today that he had the confidence of the board and major investors wanted him to stay on.

“While I retain that confidence, I’ll get to work and do the things we need to do to deal with some of the issues we’ve got at the moment,” he said.

“The latest read I’ve got is that people want me to continue to do the role.”

He conceded there had been big mistakes at the flying kangaroo. But he said the context of the pandemic and the reality that Qantas was just weeks from insolvency should be considered.

“Shareholders are very supportive of the work we’re doing now,” he said.

“On the customer side of things, we know we’ve got some work to do. We know we’ve let people down.

“I think in hindsight, we tried to come out of the COVID lockdowns too rapidly.

“That was probably a combination of us wanting to get people back to work and us wanting to get our customers to places that they hadn’t been able to get to as borders reopened.”

Goyder will appear before a bipartisan Senate committee next week, where he is will be questioned about the federal government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ request for increased capacity, plus other controversies plaguing Qantas.

Earlier this week, Mark Humphery-Jenner, a corporate governance expert and associate professor of finance at the University of NSW, told TND the hearing could decide Goyder’s future as chairman.

“If there’s something negative that comes out, if he puts his foot in it and there’s more issues about the trade unions that come out, or if he discloses something we don’t know in relation to the flight cancellations, it could absolutely make things worse,” Humphery-Jenner said.

“It could also undermine Qantas’s public image, which will further feed into customers potentially … [moving] from Qantas and going to Virgin, which covers many of the same routes.”

Thorny issues already plaguing Qantas include the $21.4 million annual salary package paid to Joyce in the 2022-2023 financial year. It was revealed in the airline’s annual report, released late on Wednesday.

Joyce pulled the plug on his tenure as Qantas CEO on September 5, two months before he was officially due to depart following its annual general meeting in November.

Days earlier, the the Australian Competition and Consumer Watchdog launched action in the Federal Court alleging Qantas engaged in false and misleading conduct by advertising tickets for flights it had already cancelled.

Some 8000 flights, which were not removed from sale, were due to depart between May and July 2022, the ACCC said.

The Qantas board has cut short-term incentive payments for senior executives by 20 per cent “in recognition of the customer and brand impact of cumulative events”.

It also plans to withhold the remaining balance of those payments while the ACCC legal action goes through the court.

Once the case is resolved, the board will decide whether to activate “clawback” provisions.

For Joyce, who was replaced by Vanessa Hudson, this means $2.2 million in short term cash and equity incentives has been withheld.

A further $8.3 million of his total remuneration for the year of $21.4 million could be clawed back, pending the outcome of the ACCC action.

Joyce’s total remuneration for the year also included $2.1 million in base pay.

“All of Alan’s remuneration had been approved previously by shareholders and the reputational issues we’re dealing with at the moment from the ACCC is yet to be proven,” Goyder said.

Qantas also faces a likely steep compensation bill after being found to have illegally sacked 1700 workers at the height of the pandemic. Hudson has been ordered into mediation with union officials to resolve the case.

Goyder, who also chairs the AFL and oil and gas giant Woodside, told the ABC that Qantas needs to change.

“I think we need a reasonable dose of humility now because we need to make sure we satisfy all our stakeholders and particularly our customers,” he said.

-with AAP