Qantas may strip Perth of its coveted status as the only place travellers can fly from Australia non-stop to London because of the West Australian government’s hard-line border policies during the pandemic.

Chief executive Alan Joyce said this was a live option for the carrier, which reported a $2.35 billion pre-tax loss on Thursday, with departures from Darwin looming as an alternative. Several hundred government-sponsored repatriation flights have run out of the Northern Territory capital’s airport throughout the global COVID-19 crisis.