Ok, Ramyon, instead of make I should have said distribute the profit. At the end of the day, it's just creative accounting. ie. we've got x dollars, what do we call them?
The point was that while there may be orders for aircraft, where is the growth of the airline. Only asking because as a frequent traveller, I know how few QF options there are, compared to any other airline you'd care to name (EK, TG, CX etc). I recall reading over the last few years on these boards the laments by various people about how QF seemed to be shrinking, reducing, cutting, and other carriers have taken up the capacity. I realise it's no good being a big, unprofitable airline, but with a bit of forsight how much profit could there be in the good times (now) if your airline was able to cater to the demand (which is obviously there).
It might look clever posting this profit; but is it really? If the management had've been focussed on growing the airline for the last few years instead of paring it down for sale, what might the numbers have been?