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Webjet Group (ASX:WJL) has said it’s committed to its FY30 investment strategy despite the fact 1H26 has been marked by a subdued appetite in Australia for domestic travel, which has seen it offer a not-too-great-sounding 2HFY26 forecast, wherein the company expects pains to continue.
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That wasn’t enough to spur a trip to Bali for many investors, with shares sinking -17% heading into the second half of afternoon trades. With that in place, 1Y returns for Webjet are now down nearly -20%, making a very volatile year for a company that had staged a rather impressive recovery after April 2.
Speaking of April 2, the company pointed to tariffs as being part of the mix of factors that have seen domestic travel demand slump; though presumably this was because consumers thought there’d be economic pain coming and decided to hold off holidays, more than direct impacts to WJL’s bottom lines.
Notably, if not amusingly, the company also blamed an enforcement action from ASIC as being part of the problem; for two months this year, WJL had to display a notice outlining it had been stung by the corporate cop, and it said this pushed customers off the site. That, probably, was the intended effect.
Also brought to the fore from WJL in explaining to shareholders why domestic travel demand was subdued? War in the Middle East. Maybe people are nervous about flying over the Levant, sure, but that mightn’t explain why fewer people are going from Adelaide to Melbourne. At the end of the day, cost-of-living was probably the most salient factor identified by WJL on Thursday.
And with interest rates set to stay higher for longer after Thursday’s latest ABS jobs data (and higher-than-expected inflation from a week or three ago), the negative sentiment was likely magnified for the stock on Thursday. Especially because it sees the second half of FY2026 remaining challenging.
WJL last traded at 72cps through today.
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