Qantas Optimistic as Aviation Supply Chain Situation Normalizes

Qantas says that the industry’s supply chain situation is normalizing, allowing the airline to return some of its aircraft back to service.

“We’re seeing the broad trends we expected as the industry recovers and trading conditions remain very positive,” said Alan Joyce, the outgoing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Qantas Group, comprised of Qantas and Jetstar. “More parts of the aviation supply chain are returning to normal, which means we’re able to put some of the spare aircraft and crew we kept in reserve back in the schedule,” added Joyce.

According to the executive, that, in combination with lower fuel prices, has allowed the airline group to reduce its ticket prices, “which is good news for customers”.

The Irish executive working at the Australian airline will give up his reins at Qantas to Vanessa Hudson, the airline’s first female CEO, in November 2023. Previously, Hudson was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Qantas.

Supply-demand mismatch
“The industry remains capacity constrained and the travel category remains strong, so there’s still a mismatch between supply and demand that’s likely to persist for some time, especially for international flying,” noted Joyce, adding that Qantas will take delivery of eight new aircraft by the end of 2023.

Furthermore, the carrier is “working hard” to bring the remaining stored aircraft back to service, including one Airbus A380, which is scheduled to enter service once again in H2 2023. In total, Qantas currently has seven active A380s, while another three are in storage, according to ch-aviation.com data. On May 19, 2023, the airline said that one aircraft of the type will return to service. Further aircraft additions would result in Qantas providing around the same international capacity on its network compared to 2019 by March 2024.

Qantas plans to begin further ramping up its operations starting October 2023.

As a result of the strong travel demand and the completion of its recovery program, the Australian carrier estimated that its Financial Year (FY) 2023 underlying profit before tax would be between AUD2.42 billion ($1.58 billion) and AUD2.47 billion ($1.62 billion). Furthermore, Qantas’ net debt is expected to be between AUD2.7 billion ($1.7 billion) and AUD2.9 billion ($1.9 billion), “significantly below the bottom of its revised target range” of AUD3.7 billion ($2.4 billion) and AUD4.6 billion ($3 billion).

Qantas will announce its FY2023 results on August 24, 2023.

The group ended H1 2023 with a net profit before tax of AUD1.4 billion ($920.2 million), with the statutory profit being AUD1 billion ($657.3 million).