Oct. 23—SYDNEY — Australian airline Qantas lost 100 million Australian dollars (71 million US dollars) in the past three months due to domestic border closures put in place to contain coronavirus, chief executive Alan Joyce said Friday.
Joyce said decisions by individual regions to close their borders had delayed the airline's recovery from the global collapse of international travel.
Qantas had expected domestic business to be operating at about 60 per cent of pre-coronavirus levels by this stage, but continued border closures mean capacity is still below 30 per cent, Joyce told the annual general meeting of shareholders.
"With most international travel off limits for a while, we're expecting to see a boom in domestic tourism once more borders open up," he added.
He did not expect normal flights to popular destinations like the US or Europe until a vaccine for Covid-19 was available, but flights to some Asian countries might be possible early next year.
The airline aims to save 600 million dollars this financial year to stay viable. It has cut 6,000 workers, is likely to cut 2,000 ground handling crew, and has stood down 18,000 staff.
Joyce took a pay cut to 2.17 million dollars this year.
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