Qantas half-yearly results: What you need to know

Qantas half-yearly results: What you need to know
By Daisy Doctor


Qantas has released its half-year results and they’re a lot to take in.

Luckily, we’ve managed to decipher them for you so you can focus on more important things like midmorning coffee breaks and croissant breaks!

First of all: Qantas group has reached its highest ever first-half underlying profit before tax, hitting a cool $976 million and surpassing its previous record of $921 million despite increases in fuel costs and its continued international growth.

That’s a 15 per cent increase from the first half of 2017.

wow

“After several years of consistent performance, we now have a lot of momentum behind us,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

“We’re vigilant about maintaining that momentum and we’re confident about the future it allows us to build.”

“This is a transition year for Qantas International and it’s setting up a bright future.

“We have the Dreamliner joining the fleet and important network changes on flights to Europe and across the Tasman, which will unlock significant benefits from FY19.”

Qantas group also announced that Jetstar has ordered 99 A320 aircraft, beginning with the 18 A321LR NEOs, beginning from mid-2020.

These newbies will fly routes like Melbourne and Sydney to Bali, which is currently carried out by the 787-8 Dreamliner, potentially freeing up the 787-8s for use on other routes like Vietnam, China, Thailand or Hawaii.

The A321LR NEOs are expected to be delivered by the end of 2022 and will replace Jetstar’s oldest A320s for use on domestic and international routes, improving fuel burn by about 15 per cent.

On top of the new planes, which are pretty exciting if you ask us, Qantas is also undergoing the largest pilot recruitment and training initiative in its history.

Since 2016, the Group has hired almost 600 new pilots in Australia, with another 350 to be recruited by the end of this calendar year with a new Qantas Group Pilot Academy to be established in 2019.

Qantas is also revamping its Sydney International Business Lounge, as well as upgrading cabins of QantasLink’s 45 fleet of turboprop aircraft.

The airline is also continuing its rollout of domestic Wi-Fi at a rate of one aircraft per week, and pushing on with its development of Project Sunrise with the goal of direct flights to London and New York from the east coast of Australia by 2022.

Meanwhile, we’re not productive enough to drag our sorry butts out of bed without an obscene amount of coffee and toast.

Bravo, Qantas.

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