Aston’s columns sparked a backlash from the airline, which removed copies of The Australian Financial Review from its Chairman’s Lounge. The boycott came to an end in September, shortly after Joyce’s exit.

Aston also reported details of a visit by Joyce and Goyder to the masthead’s editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury in April over his coverage.

Three books have been published on Qantas since Joyce was appointed in 2008. In 2010, a “warts and all” telling of the company was written by former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Matthew Benns, titled The Men Who Killed Qantas.

In 2015, Herald journalist Matt O’Sullivan documented the first years of Qantas under Joyce in a book titled Mayday: How warring egos forced Qantas off course.

The same year, the airline blocked a tell-all book by Joyce’s speechwriter Lucinda Holdforth. An injunction meant the details of the book, which included extensive details over Qantas’s controversial grounding in 2011, would remain sealed after Holdforth and Qantas reached an out-of-court settlement.

Finally, in late 2023, a Qantas-sanctioned telling of Joyce’s 15-year career at the carrier, titled Alan Joyce and Qantas: the Transformation of an Australian Icon was published, written by Peter Harbison, Joyce’s biographer.

Simon & Schuster publishing director Ben Ball said Aston’s column was essential reading for its ability to break a story, and to write about it evocatively.

“The Chairman’s Lounge will do the same over the long form, telling the bigger story of how one company – and a few key individuals – bought the nation’s loyalty and then cashed in on it.

“Joe’s prose is as rare as his access and insight: razor-sharp, funny and fearless, slicing to expose. Like [American author] Michael Lewis, he has an eye for the telling detail and the mind for the big picture, which he’s finally able to show us.”