While Qantas has stuck true to its forecast of no capacity growth across its Qantas and Jetstar domestic operations for the first half of 2014/15, this capacity discipline has yet to translate to improved yields through July and August, latest figures show.
The airline group has managed a slight capacity reduction in the first two months of 2014/15 with cuts to Qantas’s domestic seats offset by capacity increases at its Jetstar low-cost subsidiary.
The Qantas Group’s monthly operating statistics for August showed Qantas Domestic, QantasLink and Jetstar Domestic flew 9.456 billion available seat kilometres (ASK) over July and August, down about half a per cent from 9.505 billon ASKs in the prior corresponding period.
Qantas domestic and QantasLink combined reported a 2.8 per cent reduction in ASKs, while Jetstar domestic lifted ASKs by 4.5 per cent.
“Total Domestic (comprising Qantas Domestic, QantasLink and Jetstar Domestic) yields were lower than the prior corresponding period,” Qantas said in its August operating statistics published on Monday.
The last time the Qantas group reported anything other than falling domestic yields – an industry term measuring average airfares per passenger – was in July 2013, when it said yields were flat compared with the prior corresponding period.
Both Australia’s two main airline groups posted full year losses in 2013/14 as a softening economy, sluggish demand and too many seats forced them to cut prices in a bid to fill up aircraft.
Qantas said it would maintain zero capacity growth between in the six months to December, while Virgin has not offered capacity guidance for the period ahead.
