Qantas has posted its third consecutive major loss thanks to the pandemic, but remains confident it’s all up from here.
Travel uncertainty and border closures have led to the company to grapple with a massive $1.86 billion loss in the 2022 financial year – $85 million worse than last financial year’s losses.
CEO Alan Joyce says the pandemic’s impacts on the airline have been staggering.
“This result takes the Statutory Loss Before Tax impact of COVID on the Qantas Group to nearly $7 billion and our total revenue losses to $25 billion,”
“These figures are staggering and getting through to the other side has obviously been tough,
“We had to ramp down almost all flying once Delta hit and stay that way for several months before ramping back up through multiple Omicron waves as we all learned to live with COVID in the community.”
It’s not all bad news for the company, however, with Qantas’s net debt lowered to just under $4 billion thanks to strong revenue intakes – that’s down from a whopping $6.4 billion.
The airline says after several “stop/start rebounds” across this financial year, domestic travel demand made a sustained recovery in the fourth quarter.
Total domestic flying averaged 63 per cent of pre-COVID levels for the year and reached 103 per cent by 30 June.
The airline is confident it will return a profit in 2023, while investing more than $400 million in customer loyalty and experience; new lounges and new routes.
“We saw a big improvement in baggage handling and cancellations in August, which we expect will return to pre-COVID standards next month,” Mr Joyce says.
“We’re even more confident in the future than we were six months ago, so today we’re announcing more investment in our people and our customers, including a major boost to staff travel benefits, new routes and new lounges.”
Qantas has also recently announced a $50 voucher will be offered to all Frequent Flyers towards their next Qantas flight, after customers had to endure delayed flights, long queues, and misplaced luggage.
The company says key customer measures this month, such as “contact centre wait times, cancellation rates and mishandled bag rates” are thankfully trending back into pre-COVID standards.
