forensic accountant needed
You may well be right
skybed, but unfortunately the full numbers are not posted on the QF web site as yet (that I can see anyway). In the meantime an industry newsletter eTravel Blackboard has reached its own conclusions about the results (my
bold/italics)
Cheers
Qantas profit sinks 87%, Jetstar keeps group afloat
eTravel Blackboard - 19th August 2009
Qantas today announced an A$123 million profit after tax, a 87% drop from the record-breaking A$970 million in profits last year,
as Jetstar and its frequent flyer program only just managed to pull the mainline brand from the muck.
While the $123 million profit on the back of $14.6 billion in revenue, a drop of only 6.9% when compared to the previous year’s revenue, appears to show the strength of the Qantas brand, a breakdown of figures shows the real picture.
Qantas mainline achieved revenues of $11.7 billion dollars, but in the financial year of 2008/09 made a loss of $77 million.
Jetstar on the other hand with a fraction of the revenue, sitting at $1.9 billion, made a profit before tax of $126 million.
A further $310 million in profits before tax can be attributed to the Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme.
“Qantas in this challenging environment is reporting a profit,” said Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO. “It is one of the few airlines in the world reporting a profit.”
“During this year, we showed the power of our two brands.”
While refusing to speculate whether or not the declines have finally bottomed, Mr Joyce did remark that “yields haven’t gotten worse than the second half of last year” but with the amount of volatility in the market a 2009/10 guidance would be impossible to make.
Qantas Group is beginning to see traffic levels staying ahead of capacity reductions, which has helped with Qantas seat load factors. In the last quarter, capacity cuts of 6.9% have seen load factors lift 2.8% to 79.6%.
Troubles compounded
Qantas like many other carriers said that operations in the last financial year were “challenging” with a series of one-off impacts to hit operations including Influenza A(H1N1) and the introduction of the A380 into its fleet.
“The first half of the year was characterised by a generally favourable operating environment and strong demand,” said Mr Joyce in the financial statement.
“During the second half, the environment deteriorated, with domestic and international competitor capacity continuing to grow and demand in key markets softening quickly as the global slowdown hit.
“This was compounded by one-off events during the year,” he adds.
Looking at the impacts individually, Qantas estimates that Influenza A(H1N1), or “swine flu”, in the last quarter alone cost the company $45 million, the introduction of the A380 would have cost $37 million, and an industrial dispute with engineers cost the company $130 million.
New cost-cutting program
At the same time, Qantas outlined a brand new cost-savings program set to target $1.5 billion in permanent savings over three years beginning this current financial year.
Named “Q Future”, the new program will consider further efficiencies in fleet utilisation as well as group operations in the coming years. While Qantas aims to reduce redundancies, Mr Joyce did not deny that more job cuts could be made.
In terms of fleet reconfigurations, in the press briefing Mr Joyce outlined a cabin shuffle for the Boeing B737s and Airbus A380s which would see more Premium Economy seats put in. Exact numbers are expected in the near future.
Of the $1.5 billion in savings, $500 million is expected to be achieved by 2009/10 financial year end.