News
Flush with cash down under
March 1st 2016
The CEOs of Australia’s two major airlines and Tasman rival, Air New Zealand, unveiled rosy financial pictures for their airlines at the February announcements of their interim financial results, to December 31, 2015. Read More »
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Qantas Airways Group CEO, Alan Joyce, who not that long ago was announcing record losses, described the company’s US$491.4 million profit for the half year as the best in the carrier’s 95-year history. It was a 234% improvement over the same period a year earlier.
In Auckland, Air New Zealand CEO, Christopher Luxon, reported a 154% increase in net income, to $223.5 million, for the period and forecast full-year earnings would surge at least 70%.
And Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti and his team have fought their way back into the black after several years of losses. Borghetti declared there had been a “significant improvement” in the group’s financial performance following his announcement of a half year underlying profit of $7.3 million, which represented a $38.9 million turnaround from a year earlier. The improved result was driven by the group’s “disciplined execution of a five-year $1 billion cost reduction strategy”, he said.
Qantas has well and truly bounced back from the dismal $2 billion net loss it declared in 2014, although most of that was the result of writing down the value of aircraft. Today, every part of its business is profitable, including its long-haul international operations. Once the group’s worst performing division, Qantas International reported earnings up almost 360%, to $192.9 million.
While competition in the Australasian market remains tough, the carriers have benefited from lower fuel costs and a truce in a fierce domestic capacity war between Qantas and Virgin.
