Qantas posts record profit for year to June

QANTAS says its net profit after tax of A$720 million (US$566.92 million) for the year ending June 30, 2007, was a record.

The profit includes a provision of A$47 million against liabilities Qantas may incur in the United States for involvement in an alleged price-fixing freight cartel.

Revenue for the reporting period amounted to A$15.2 billion, an increase of 11 per cent year on year. Operating cash flow stood at A$2.4 billion. Capacity growth, measured in available seat kilometres (ASK), was 3.4 per cent. Traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), increased by 7.4 per cent while yield improved by 6.9 per cent.

Passenger revenue rose by 11.5 per cent over the previous year, including fuel surcharge recoveries, reflecting an 8.4 per cent improvement in yield.

The airline said in a statement that looking ahead it is possibly seeking new ownership and strategic acquisitions that will determine the future direction of its businesses, including possible partnership or consolidation opportunities with US, European and Asian airlines.

Over the coming year the aggressive growth of its low-budget carrier Jetstar will continue as it would take delivery of nine A320 aircraft between December 2007 and March 2009 for domestic routes, as well as additional A330s by September this year for its international operations, taking its A330 fleet to six.

"The first six weeks of 2007/08 have been very strong for all our flying businesses and forward bookings are equally buoyant through to the end of the calendar year. As a result, and subject to no major deterioration in market conditions, we are expecting another good profit in 2007/08, which we are currently expecting to be around 30 per cent higher than the 2006/07 profit before tax result," the statement said.