- Qantas (QAN) says it has taken almost 500,000 domestic flight bookings in the past two weeks as Australian states start to reopen their borders
- That figure is up from around 20,000 in a two-week period in August, when many parts of the country were locked down
- All the airline’s 22,000 staff — including 11,000 that were idled without pay — are expected to be back working by early December
- In total, COVID-19 is estimated to have cost Qantas $20 billion by the end of this year
- Shares in Qantas are down 0.88 per cent to $5.61 as of 1:43 pm AEDT
Qantas (QAN) said it has taken almost 500,000 domestic flight bookings in the past two weeks as Australian states start to reopen their borders.
That figure is up from around 20,000 in a two-week period in August when many parts of the country were locked down.
“In short, travel demand and confidence levels are high,” chief executive Alan Joyce said at the airline’s annual general meeting this morning.
“Bookings to South Australia have increased more than six fold since the SA Premier confirmed their re-opening plan. Bookings to Brisbane, Gold Coast and Cairns are up 10 fold in the past two weeks.”
The airline said it would provide a more detailed update to the market next month when international travel is expected to also return.
Australia eased its international border restrictions on Monday for the first time since the onset of COVID-19, allowing some vaccinated people to travel freely and many families to reunite.
“Flights from Sydney to London and to Los Angeles started this week,” Mr Joyce continued.
“And the leadership of the New South Wales Government to remove quarantine for the fully vaccinated means we’ve been able to accelerate the return of routes that we didn’t think would be viable until well into next year — places like Johannesburg and Bangkok.”
Just this morning, Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan said the state would also open its borders when 90 per cent of the population aged 12 and over is fully vaccinated. He said that could be achieved by late January or early February next year.
“What’s unique about our plan is that it’s intended for border controls to ease at a point where there is no community transmission in Western Australia, combined with very, very high levels of vaccination,” Mr McGowan said.
“This puts us in the best possible position to transition with minimal impact on our health, our economy, and our way of life.”
Last month, Qantas said that all its 11,000 staff idled without pay — roughly half its total workforce — will return to work by early December as domestic and international flying returns to more normal levels.
“Combined with operational and corporate employees already working, all 22,000 employees are expected to be back working, which wasn’t expected to happen until June next year,” Mr Joyce said.
But despite the promising outlook, Qantas chairman Richard Goyder said FY21 had been “another very difficult year”.
“The financial impact of this has been clear,” Mr Goyder said.
“In August, we posted a statutory loss before tax of $2.35 billion for the 2021 financial year — which follows a loss of $2.7 billion the year before.”
While trading conditions during the first half of FY22 haven’t been much better, Mr Goyder pointed to the airline’s Freight and Loyalty segments as the top performers, along with flying services for WA and QLD’s resource sectors.
“In total, it’s likely COVID will have cost us more than $20 billion in revenue by the end of this calendar year,” he said.
“It’s a staggering number — and it’s remarkable that the business has managed to deal with this as well as it has.”
Shares in Qantas are down 0.88 per cent to $5.61 as of 1:43 pm AEDT.