Qantas celebrates thumping half-year profit and announces rollout of Wi-Fi for passengers

QANTAS celebrates record half-year profit result by announcing the first in-flight Wi-Fi trials on domestic flights and a $500 million share buyback.

Alan Joyce has much to smile about after Qantas’s record half-year profit of $921 million. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

QANTAS has celebrated its record half-year profit result by announcing the first in-flight Wi-Fi trials on domestic flights, a new lounge at Heathrow, a pilot recruitment program and a $500 million share buyback.

The free Wi-Fi will be fed at download speeds of between 12 mbps and 25 mbps — fast enough to stream movies, live sports and television shows.

In the second half of 2015, Qantas achieved an underlying profit before tax of $921 million up from $367 million in the previous corresponding period.

The result was at the high end of market estimates, and meant 2015 was the best calendar year for Qantas in the national carrier’s 95-year history.

Group CEO Alan Joyce said every segment of the business had contributed strongly to the figure, with record performances by Qantas Domestic, Jetstar and Qantas Loyalty.

To mark the outstanding result, Mr Joyce said Qantas would trial in-flight high speed Wi-Fi

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Qantas will also undertake a share buy back of up to $500 million to “build long term shareholder value”, and build a new lounge at Heathrow Airport by early 2017.

Alan Joyce says the results reflect a “fit, forward-focused business”.

Tests will begin on a single 737 later this year before being rolled out to all 737 and A330 aircraft in the domestic fleet from early in 2017.

Passengers will be able to access the Wi-Fi on any personal device without paying a cent.

Mr Joyce said they would also be looking at options for their international and regional fleet but would not put a timeframe on broader Wi-Fi access.

The domestic rollout is possible due to the National Broadband Network’s two Sky Muster satellites parked 36,000 kilometres in orbit above Australia.

Each satellite blankets the continent but the signals do have to be shared among all users.

A major pilot recruitment program is also planned ahead of the arrival of new 787-9 aircraft late next year.

Qantas domestic passengers will soon have access to free Wi-Fi.

An estimated 170 pilots would be needed between now and the end of 2019, Mr Joyce said.

The lower Australian dollar was “driving an inbound tourism surge” to which Qantas had responded with more capacity on strong Asian and North American routes.

“Our performance has also been bolstered by our three cornerstone partnerships, with American Airlines, China Eastern and Emirates,” Mr Joyce said.

A massive $448 million saving on fuel, along with the other factors helped Qantas International achieve a fourfold improvement in underlying earnings to $270 million.

Qantas Domestic lifted earnings 70 per cent to $387 million, and Jetstar managed a $181 million increase to $262 million.

“To show you just how good Jetstar’s performance was — this half year profit is bigger then its best ever full year result,” said Mr Joyce.

“Our airlines are complemented by Qantas Loyalty which posted a record result in the half.”

Mr Joyce said the results reflected a “fit, forward-focused business” but there was still much more to do.

“We have taken another stride toward a strong, healthy and sustainable Qantas for the long term,” he said.

“And we are excited about the opportunities ahead — for our customers, our people and our shareholders.”

Originally published as Qantas celebrates thumping half-year profit and announces rollout of Wi-Fi for passengers