Alliance’s Scott McMillan to Step Down in November

By Andrew Curran.

The founder and joint managing director of Alliance Aviation, trading as Alliance Airlines, has announced he will step down later this year.

According to an October 8, 2025, stock market filing, Scott McMillan will resign at the annual general meeting on November 27. He will be replaced by Stewart Tully, currently the other joint managing director. The filing notes McMillan’s resignation is the end of a “successful conclusion of a 12-month succession plan.”

Confirmation of McMillan’s resignation date follows a report in The Australian newspaper the previous day noting a one-third drop in the company’s share price over the previous 12 months and an AUD25 million (USD16.5 million) error in its recent full-year result announcement.

McMillan told the newspaper that there was no reason for the share price plunge and all is well at the airline, which he has built to become Australia’s fourth largest.

Australian Stock Exchange charts show Alliance Aviation closed out calendar 2025 trading at AUD2.95 (USD1.94) per ordinary share, slightly down on a 12-month peak of AUD2.98 (USD1.96) two days previously. The stock closed at AUD2.09 (USD1.38) on October 8, 2025.

The sharpest fall this year followed Alliance disclosing an incorrect net profit figure in August. The airline told the market on August 20 that it had recorded a net profit of AUD82.1 million (USD54 million) for the 12 months to June 30, 2025. The company called this a “solid financial outcome” notwithstanding some external challenges.

Two market corrections followed the following day. The first disclosed that figures for deferred tax liabilities, lease liabilities, and provisions had been transcribed onto the wrong lines in its slide deck provided to investors and analysts.

The second correction said the airline had “uncovered an error in the results release, issued to the market yesterday,” and changed the net profit figure to AUD57.3 million (USD37.7 million). There was no reason given for the release of the wrong figure. The Australian described it as “essentially a typo.”

But the typo contributed to Alliance’s share price falling from around AUD2.60 (USD1.71) on August 20 to AUD2.31 (USD1.52) on August 28, 2025.

Alliance’s top shareholder is Qantas, which owned 19.7% of the company as of June 30, 2025. Qantas was followed by HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited (19.55%), JP Morgan Nominees Australia Pty Limited (9.42%), Bond Street Custodians Limited (9.26%), and Kiowa Two Thousand Corporate Trustee Company Limited (7.21%).

The share slide has also burnt McMillan. He directly and indirectly holds almost 4.05 million shares, plus a further 33,771 shares due to vest in July 2026, according to an October 2 filing. 

A gregarious character, McMillan was one of Alliance’s founders in 2002 and has created a major player in the Australian aviation space, including it becoming the country’s largest air charter operator. At the close of the 2025 financial year, Alliance was operating 79 aircraft (twenty-four F100s, twelve F70s, and forty-three E190s). Those aircraft flew over 113,000 hours in the 12 months to June 30, 2025, generating AUD769.7 million (USD506.7 million). The airline now employs around 1,450 people.

“It has been an incredible privilege to lead Alliance from its inception through to becoming a leading Australian aviation services provider,” said McMillan in yesterday’s filing. “I am immensely proud of what we have built.”

Alliance Aviation Chairman James Jackson said the company owed a deep debt of gratitude to McMillan. “Under his leadership, Alliance has grown from a start-up operation to a substantial ASX-listed aviation business with a strong market position and an excellent reputation.”

McMillan will remain at Alliance Airlines in an executive capacity until mid-2026.

You can read the Australian Stock Exchange filing here.

Photo: Aero South Pacific.