Qantas “positioned for recovery” despite $6.9 billion drop in revenue.
Qantas Airways Limited has just released its results for the six months to 31 December 2020, with a statutory pre-tax loss of $1.47 billion including more redundancy and restructuring costs worth $284 million.
CEO Alan Joyce said the figures were “stark but not surprising,” with the period including the extended Victorian lockdown, the suspension of virtually all international flying and a 75% downturn in revenue.
Qantas Loyalty still had significant income because the vast majority of points are now earned from activity on the ground, while Qantas Freight also recorded a record result.
“When we had the opportunity to fly domestically, we saw significant pent up travel demand and generated positive cash flow,” Joyce said, with both QF and JQ seeing extremely strong booking levels during periods when travel restrictions were eased.
Internationally QF operated just 8% of its pre-COVID capacity, mostly on repatriation services on behalf of the Government as well as NZ flights under the one-way bubble arrangement.
Joyce noted that QF was one of just eight airlines in the world to retain an investment grade credit rating through the pandemic, with strong liquidity including $2.6 billion in cash, undrawn loan facilities worth $1.6 billion and net debt of $6.05 billion, along with $2.5 billion in unencumbered assets.
QF is targeting major cost savings as part of its recovery program, with initiatives including “new deals with major travel agents, reducing cost of sale”.
Joyce said the carrier is now operating under a working assumption for international travel to restart at the end of October 2021, apart from a material increase in trans-Tasman flying scheduled for July 2021.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.