Qantas sweeteners for customers for their part in record annual profit

After paying through the nose for airfares, Qantas customers are being ‘thanked’ with points and status credits for their part in the airline’s record annual profit.

Qantas customers will be showered with frequent flyer points and status credits as a thank you for paying high airfares that helped deliver the airline a record profit of $1.74bn in the year to June 30.

Over the 12 months almost $17bn was collected from passengers, up from $6bn the previous year thanks to international fares that were up 57 per cent on pre-Covid levels, and 34 per cent higher domestic fares.

At the same time the airline stripped $1bn of costs out of the business, which many customers felt in the form of leaner lounge offerings and light in-flight service.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said fares had moderated in the last six months, due to more seats coming into the market and cheaper fuel, and they would continue to fall.

“There’s no doubt fares are higher than pre-Covid which is true for products and services across the spectrum, but we’ve already seen economy fares come down on average by around 12 per cent over the past six months as more capacity returned to the market, especially internationally, and we expect that downward pressure to continue,” he said.

As a thank you to customers who forked out for at least one Qantas flight in the last year, a “gift” of at least 1000 frequent flyer points or 30 status credits was promised.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce had much to smile about on Thursday, delivering the group’s full year profit of a record $1.74bn. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles

Mr Joyce said customers had “shown a lot of patience and understanding as the industry recovered”.

“We’ve announced a points or status credits gift today but we know the best way we can thank them is to consistently deliver the standards they rightly expect, and reinvest our profits to keep improving their experience,” he said.

Although flight delays and cancellation rates had improved in recent months, Mr Joyce conceded there was “still more to do” with on-time performance still a way from pre-Covid levels.

Figures for July showed 71.5 per cent of Qantas flights landed on time in the month, and 3.8 per cent were cancelled, or 786 services in total. The long-term average was 81.3 per cent of flights on time and a 2.2 per cent cancellation rate.

In a further sweetener for travellers, a flight sale across Qantas and Jetstar was launched offering fares of $1800 return on Sydney-London and $1200 for Melbourne-Los Angeles.

On the domestic front, $29 fares were up for grabs on Jetstar’s Sydney to Ballina and Sydney-Launceston routes, and $99 for Perth-Brisbane.

Mr Joyce said one of the achievements he was most proud of in his 23 years with the Qantas Group was setting up Jetstar which had “democratised air travel”.

“Jetstar has carried 380 million people and I led the team that set that up,” said Mr Joyce, who will leave the airline in November.

“We had people that couldn’t afford to travel before Jetstar and there’s a lot of Australians flying today because of Jetstar.”

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce with CEO-designate Vanessa Hudson. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

His comments came as the Senate committee examining cost of living issues summoned him to appear before a public hearing on Monday.

Labor senator Tony Sheldon said Mr Joyce would face questions on soaring ticket prices, the “heavily criticised flight credits scheme” and the outsourcing of jobs.

The appearance promises to be Mr Joyce’s first before a Senate committee since 2014, when he was grilled on the offshoring of aircraft maintenance work.

The airline also revealed it had ordered 24 more widebody aircraft to replace its fleet of ageing A330s from 2027, and A380s from 2032.

The new Boeing 787-9s and A350s are in addition to 12 A350-1000s on order, to undertake Qantas’s ultra-long-range Project Sunrise flights from late 2026.

CEO-designate Vanessa Hudson said the new aircraft would open up more routes and offer more promotional opportunities for pilots and cabin crew.

“It’s going to be great for our people but also the communities we serve because we’ll be able to fly to more destinations point-to-point,” Ms Hudson said.

Originally published as Qantas sweeteners for customers for their part in record annual profit