Qantas profits and aircraft order

Australian national carrier Qantas has announced plans to add eight long range Boeing 787-900s to the fleet after reporting a remarkable turnaround in its fortunes.

The airline has reported a return to profit amid the best trading it has seen since the global financial crash in 2008.  Helped by the financial restructuring, some big job losses and low oil prices, the carrier reported underlying pre-tax profit of A$975m (£457m), reversing a loss of A$646m a year ago.

Alan Joyce, Qantas Chief Executive, said the aircraft order symbolised the scale of the airline’s turnaround.

He said: "We are delivering one of the biggest turnarounds in Australia's corporate history.  This is the best first-half result in four years and the best second-half result in the company's history."

Qantas will dispose of its five strong team of Boeing 747s as the new Dreamliners begin to arrive in 2017.  Long haul the airline also operates 12 Airbus A380s.  It is also the owner of Jetstar, an Australian low-cost airline (self-described as "value based") headquartered in Melbourne (Qantas is in Sydney), created in response to the threat posed by the then named airline Virgin Blue now Virgin Australia.

The company said it would return A$505m to shareholders by paying a dividend of 23 cents a share.  www.qantas.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum