Qantas loss remains large even before Sydney lockdown. Qantas has posted another massive COVID-related loss, but is optimistic international travel will resume before Christmas. The airline lost $1.73 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, as the global COVID pandemic raged.
The loss is actually a little smaller than the previous year’s $1.96 billion loss, despite revenue plunging by 58 per cent to less than $6 billion, due to an aggressive cost-cutting campaign and staff stand-downs.
However, Qantas estimates that the pandemic has so far cost it around $16 billion in lost revenues over the past two financial years, with that set to rise to $20 billion by the end of this calendar year.
“This loss shows the impact that a full year of closed international borders and more than 330 days of domestic travel restrictions had on the national carrier,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said.
For now, Qantas is assuming that current domestic border closures will remain in place until early December, which will wipe about $1.4 billion off its top-line profit numbers for the current half year.
Offsetting that, Qantas said it had already achieved $650 million per annum of ongoing savings from its cost-cutting program, while the current eight-week domestic staff stand-down will be extended while New South Wales and Victoria remain locked down.
The airline said it had paid down around half a billion dollars of debt and was looking at a potential land sale in Mascot, near Sydney Airport, to pay down hundreds of millions more.
In the meantime, Qantas said it had $3.8 billion in cash and available debt facilities to finance it through its current losses.
Qantas’s Christmas wish
The airline is also hopeful of, and planning for, the resumption of some international flights before Christmas.
“It’s obviously up to government exactly how and when our international borders re-open, but with Australia on track to meet the 80 per cent trigger agreed by National Cabinet by the end of the year, we need to plan ahead for what is a complex restart process,” Mr Joyce said.
“We can adjust our plans if the circumstances change, which we’ve already had to do several times during this pandemic.
“Some people might say we’re being too optimistic, but based on the pace of the vaccine rollout, this is within reach and we want to make sure we’re ready.”
Qantas said the initial routes being planned for include Singapore, the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Canada, while it expects the New Zealand travel bubble will resume in some form by mid-December.
The airline said it was hoping to restart flights to Hong Kong in February and the rest of the Qantas and Jetstar international network was set to open up from April 2022, with capacity increasing gradually.
So hopeful is the airline of an immediate rebound in travel demand when borders reopen that it has plans to bring back five of its A380 Airbus super jumbos earlier than expected, in 2022, although it is also planning to retire two, bringing its fleet of the planes down to 10. ABC News