Yahoo Finance Qantas takes major hit to profits
Qantas Group has posted its end-of-year results, reflecting a 28 per cent drop in statutory profit after tax and reduced earnings compared with last year.
The company’s statutory profit after tax was $1.25bn, down 28 per cent year-on-year, and its underlying profit before tax was $2.08bn, down 16 per cent year-on-year.
The group will also deliver up to $400m to shareholders in the first half of FY25, with
While Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson acknowledged the results were lower than the previous year, she said this was due to lower airfares, the airline reinvesting in customer services and lower freight venue.
“We present those results today, and have delivered, not only a strong result, but we are also underpinning that, delivering improved on time performance and also customer satisfaction,” she said.
“This is about getting the balance right.”
She also spruiked the improvements in customer satisfaction metrics, and said the year ahead will result in the group increasing their fleet by 20 aircraft and rolling out WiFi on their international planes.
However, both Qantas and Jetstar improved their on-time performance, with Qantas increasing by 10 points, and the budget carrier improving by 8.8 points.
Customer Net Promoter Score for both carriers also improved by 22 points (Qantas) and Jetstar (19 points).
“Both Qantas and Jetstar saw significant uplift in satisfaction,” said Ms Hudson.
“I speak a lot, a lot to customers on planes and in airports, and what I hear and what they say to me is that things feel different, and that is actually a reflection of the incredible work of our people.”
Commenting on the formation of a new Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme and a charter of customer rights, as detailed in the federal government’s aviation whitepaper released on Monday, Ms Hudson said the airline group would aim to proactively improve performance, however it would not put “schedule ahead of safety”.
“We’ve been investing in lifting on time, performance and lifting reliability so that we don’t have to recover in those moments,” she said.
“There are going to be times where there are disruptions (like) yesterday in Sydney, we all would have seen the massive weather events, and communication and managing customers in those moments will always be something that we focus on and drive ourselves to get better at.”
She said she welcomed the white paper, and said it took a “very balanced approach”. While the paper left the door open for customers to receive compensation, Ms Hudson warned these initiatives could increase prices.
“When we look to the other jurisdictions that have these broader consumer compensation schemes, we actually think that they add cost to airlines,” she said.
“They add cost to fares, and so we think that the government is taking a very measured and a very balanced approach to the way in which they are viewing this.”
More to come
