Qantas shares have soared to their highest levels in more than a year after the carrier said it expects to return to the black six months earlier than expected and post more than $1 billion in profits in the December half.
In a trading update to investors on Thursday morning, Australia’s largest airline forecast an underlying profit before tax of between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion for the first six months of its financial year, despite the burden of higher jet fuel prices and the high inflation’s impact on consumer spending.
The forecast beat analyst expectations, which saw Qantas returning to profit by the end of June 2023. Its shares surged by as much as 12 per cent, and were trading 9.9 per cent higher at $5.68 by mid-afternoon.
“Delivering pre-COVID levels of performance requires more than pre-COVID levels of resources,” says Qantas boss Alan Joyce.Credit: Peter Rae
Chief executive Alan Joyce dismissed suggestions the airline’s growth may inflame tensions with employees and travellers who’ve been subject to poor service and working conditions, arguing the operational issues experienced earlier this year wreaked havoc across the entire industry.
“What’s become clear is delivering pre-COVID levels of performance requires more than pre-COVID levels of resources,” Joyce said.
He also denied that management was at odds with staff, despite multiple threats of industrial action over working conditions and pay, and ruled out quitting as chief executive for the second time in a matter of months.
“There is disengagement with a couple of union leaders, not with our employee base,” the Qantas boss said. “Most employees are very pleased we’re offering $10,000 bonuses and significant improvements to staff travel. Don’t misrepresent a couple of union members with a grudge as representative of employees.”
Seeking to appease employees, Qantas also announced a wage adjustment for about 20,000 employees on Thursday, which will see annual pay rises increase from 2 per cent to 3 per cent in recognition of the airline’s quick recovery, at a cost of about 40 million a year. About 5000 employees who have already agreed to a 2 per cent increase as part of their enterprise agreements will be automatically bumped up to 3 per cent.
But the upgrade has failed to impress some employee groups, with the Australian Services Union pointing out the pay increase remains below inflation.
Qantas says 75 per cent of its flights have been on-time in October, compared to 69 per cent in September and 67 per cent in August. Its cancellation rate is 1.7 per cent in October, down from 2.4 per cent last month.
“We are performing better than our competition here in Australia. Eight of the last 12 months, Qantas has been ahead of Virgin in on-time performance, and this month we are way ahead of them,” Joyce said.
Airfares will remain high for the foreseeable future as the carrier grapples with a nearly 75 per cent increase in the cost of jet-fuel, high inflation and rising interest rates. The group also announced it would invest $200 million in staff training, plane restorations and other efficiency measures to mitigate worker shortages and supply chain delays.
“Airfares have to be up because we are seeing fuel this quarter is 67 per cent higher than pre-COVID... It is still very volatile. We are also recovering the contingency with the lag in capacity we have in the system to maintain operational stability,” Joyce said.
Revenue for domestic travel has exceeded pre-COVID levels and the group’s domestic capacity will return to 100 per cent by the end of this financial year, up from 94 per cent in the December half. The group also revealed a new ticket sale on Thursday, with more than one million fares starting at $35.
Qantas said its international capacity will increase to 77 per cent in the June half, up from 61 per cent in the December half. The group’s international market share has jumped from 24 per cent to 31 per cent this year, but it expects this to stabilise as other carriers recover from the pandemic.
“We have apologised for the customer service issues we experienced, but these issues are widespread. There are light years between the competition and us” Joyce said, adding Qantas was ranked 5th best airline in the latest global Skytrax survey. Rival Virgin Australia came 43rd.
RBC analyst Owen Birrell said he was impressed with the strength of the half-yearly update, which was 288 per cent higher than his forecast.
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