.It's because it has managed its revenue other non-fuel costs better, which has allowed it to retain more of the fuel cost benefits than its competitors, and to offset more of the impact of the recent fuel cost increases.
It's put its revenue into share buybacks and Jetstar. Qantas has managed its costs appallingly badly. Even if what you suggest actually is the case (and anyone with any idea of what is going on inside QF knows that to be patent rubbish) just imagine how well Qf SHOULD have been doing if money was not thrown away on Jetstar and share buybacks but instead spent on a fleet of 777's. Fuel is the biggest expense and fuel is the one thing that has the QF fleet absolutely hamstrung.
You cannot compare a 380 burning 13,000kgs of fuel per hour and carrying 480 odd pax with a 777 burning 4,500kgs per hour carrying 400 pax. Those extra 80 pax are consuming 8,500kgs per HOUR every hour the jets are in the air. To put that another way, every flight QF takes to LAX they are selling an extra 80 odd seats but burning 120,000kgs of jet fuel extra to just about all their major competitors. London it's 240,000kgs. One way.
Unless Qantas has the capital to fix this self induced problem, it is in serious trouble. Joyce might take solace in the fact he can make money domestically with a quasi monopoly and blame International for giving him a big fuel bill, but HE has created and exacerbated that problem by throwing money away on rubbish self enrichment programmes and not ordering a single jet. There is absolutely no getting around it.
Also - almost unique to Qantas is the enormous housing price growth in the major capital cities. That has now stopped, but for the last ten years anyone has been able to borrow on the value of their home and spend on travel. It is not an insignificant factor.