With airlines any profit or loss in isolation is irrelevant. The long term capital intensive nature of the business means you can make small profits and be suddenly in deep water when you have to renew the fleet. Like Qantas you can strangle the stone for the drops of blood for a few giant profits but at some point you have to sign a cheque for new equipment and those profits pale in comparison. It's long term performance that matters and partners with deep pockets. VA failed because it never met the performance required of it's encumbrances and its partners got sick of it and stopped the sneaky back door capital injections that were occurring over time. Pretty sure the regular updates on performance are to settle the market that the long term performance is still there. However there's also a tightrope to walk that QF may be poking about making large profits so soon after large handouts, so out comes the 'we are making profit, but not much, limping along here, but doing well' type updates, keep the focus on Alan's cash grab before he retires.