Qantas has announced an “underlying” profit before tax of $377 million for the financial year ended June 30, on revenues of $13.8 billion, with the result meeting its guidance range of $300-400 million.
“While global trading conditions remained challenging, they continued to improve, and the Qantas Group has delivered a strong result, more than tripling its full year profit year-on-year,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.
“The result was underpinned by strong performances across the Qantas Group with Qantas Airlines returning to its position as the most profitable domestic airline, and both Jetstar and Qantas Frequent Flyer had record profits.”
All Qantas business units were profitable for the year, but the result was really driven by the Frequent Flyer division, which contributed an underlying EBIT of $328 million. Jetstar contributed $131 million in underlying EBIT, which was a new record for the budget carrier, while Qantas mainline contributed $67 million.
Joyce noted that the airline was aided by the recovery from the global financial crisis. “International demand and yield across the business and leisure sectors continue to improve and domestic business demand is also strengthening,” he said.
“The domestic leisure market continues to be highly competitive; however we expect this too will improve in the first half of the year.”
Net profit for the Qantas Group came in at $112 million, a 4.3 per cent fall compared to the previous financial year as unit costs for the year, minus fuel, were down 4.3 per cent.
Over the next year, the carrier has earmarked the introduction of new aircraft and investment in customer service as its major priorities. “We will also focus on investing in customer product and service, innovation and technology to complement the fleet renewal plan,” said Joyce. “Our latest industry leading initiative is Qantas’s Next Generation Check-in which has launched in Perth, ahead of a wider roll-out later this year.”
Noting that the start of the current financial year has been stronger, the airline said that it expects underlying profit before tax for the first half of the 2011 financial year to be “materially stronger than the first half of FY10”, but refused to give a specific forecast, adding that changes in fuel prices, foreign exchange and general trading conditions could rapidly impact on earnings.
