Omicron and WA border delay cause $710 million financial slug.
Qantas has recorded a statutory loss before tax of $622 million for the latest six-month reporting period, its fourth on the trot during the pandemic.
The carrier also posted an underlying loss before tax of $1.28 billion, but despite the bleak figures, which included a $650 million financial hit from the Omicron variant and $60 million from WA’s delayed border opening alone, the airline said its recovery program was ahead of schedule to deliver more than $900 million in annualised cost benefits by the end of FY22.
The recovery program has included reducing $400 million in costs from its Qantas Domestic and more than $300 million in costs from its Qantas International network.
Qantas has also flagged the launch of a new staff retention share scheme and work beginning on getting its much-hyped Project Sunrise back on track.
CEO Alan Joyce also pointed to recent sales surges as positive indicators of the much needed recovery in traveller confidence.
“In the past few weeks, as more border restrictions have dropped away, we’ve seen international bookings strengthen even further and in mid-February, we had our best week for international ticket sales since pre-COVID,” Joyce said.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.