Australian Airline Qantas Posts Profit, Orders 24 Aircraft

Sydney — Australian airline Qantas on Thursday reported its first full-year profit since 2019 as it announced an order for 12 Boeing 787s and 12 Airbus A350s.

Qantas reported that its statutory after tax profit for the full 2022/23 financial year, which ended on June 30, was 1.74 billion Australian dollars (1.13 billion US dollars), compared with $7 billion in accumulated statutory losses over three previous financial years.

Annual underlying profit before tax was $2.47 billion, a significant turnaround from the underlying loss before tax of $1.86 billion 12 months earlier. Annual revenue and other income jumped to $19.82 billion from $9.11 billion in the prior year.

The positive results, driven by strong travel demand and the completion of $1 billion recovery plan, allowed the company to order 24 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus from the 2026/27 financial year to replace Qantas' A330 fleet, Australia's flag carrier said.

"These results show a substantial turnaround in both our finances and service over the past year," Qantas boss Alan Joyce said.

"Flight delays and cancellations have largely returned to pre-Covid levels and we've shifted from heavy losses to a strong profit and pipeline of investment worth billions of dollars."

Joyce said that the group doubled the number passengers to 46 million compared to the year before.

"Travel demand is incredibly robust and we've taken delivery of more aircraft and opened up new routes to help meet it," Joyce added.

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