The Qantas Group is continuing with its plans to cut international capacity and make 1,000 redundancies despite revealing a profit before tax of A$442 million between June 2010 and 2011.
The full-year figure is a 46% hike on the figure recorded between June 2009 and 2010, and comes despite an “unprecedented” year of natural disasters including flooding, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Alan Joyce, Qantas’ CEO, said: “Natural disasters and weather disruptions are an unavoidable reality for the aviation industry.
“However, the frequency and severity of disruptions seen in FY11 was unprecedented.”
Bumper results at Jetstar, Qantas’ low cost subsidiary, helped boost the results – the carrier generated earnings before tax of A$169 million, up 29% year on year.
Meanwhile, Qantas International recorded a loss of A$200 million over the year, on invested capital of $5 billion.
Joyce said the figure was an “unacceptable return” and insisted drastic plans announced earlier this month to restructure the airline’s international business would go ahead.
“We will reduce investment in underperforming business areas and direct capital towards growth opportunities,” he said.
The airline group plans to launch Jetstar Japan in 2012, in a bid to tap into what Joyce termed “the fastest growing aviation region: Asia”.