On a serious note, quite often the best CEO for the job is not necessarily experienced in the Nitty gritty of that company. That's what the people under them are for. Their best attribute is to make the hard decisions, find new directions or acquisitions. Sometimes making workers redundant. If they can do all that for Qantas, it wouldn't matter if they'd never set foot inside a plane, let alone fly one.
Richard Branson was a good example. He started a record label, video games label, airline. He didn't have experience in those things. He surrounded himself with people who did.