Best first-half performance for Qantas since 2010.
Qantas has this morning revealed its financial results for the six months to 31 December, with an underlying profit before tax of $367 million and a statutory after-tax result of $206 million.
It’s a massive $619 million turnaround in the underlying result, with QF citing a range of factors including $374 million in Qantas Transformation program benefits, $208 million in reduced depreciation, $162 million on “increased revenue per seat kilometre”, $59 million attributed to the removal of the carbon tax, and a $33 million benefit from lower fuel prices.
All operating segments were profitable at an underlying earnings before interest and tax level, with Qantas International profitable for the first time since the GFC.
CEO Alan Joyce said the results showed the company was “executing the right plan with discipline and speed.
“The decisive factor in our best half-year result for four years was our complete focus on the Qantas Transformation program,” he said.
The company isn’t providing profit guidance for the full year due to the high degree of volatility and uncertainty in global economic conditions, fuel prices and foreign exchange rates. Joyce said that overall demand is stable, with yield and load factors having stabilised and “in the early stages of recovery”.
Qantas also this morning announced that it had taken a 51% stake in Taylor Fry, an Australian analytics and actuarial consulting business, with the acquisition aiming to expand Qantas Loyalty’s data and analytics capability.
Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford also announced that effective today Garry Hounsell will retire as a director of Qantas Airways Limited, after ten years on the board.
More information in today’s issue of Travel Daily.