AIRLINES QANTASHONG KONG, Nov 11 Reuters - Australia's biggest...

AIRLINES QANTAS
HONG KONG, Nov 11 Reuters - Australia's biggest airline Qantas Airways Ltd said today that its financial performance in its new fiscal year was exceeding targets and that it would beat cost-cutting plans for the year.
"We still expect to meet or exceed last year's earnings," Peter Gregg, Qantas' chief financial officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.
Since the start of its new fiscal year on July 1, he added, the company's financial performance "has tracked ahead of what we expected".
In August, Qantas reported a 19.7 percent decline in its net profit for the year ended June 30 to A$343.5 million (US$243.88 million) after SARS, the Iraq war and stiff domestic competition ate into its business in the second half of its fiscal year.
A survey of 13 analysts surveyed by Multex Global Estimates, a Reuters company, predicts Qantas will report net profit in its fiscal year ending June 2004 of A$511.1 million.
The carrier has embarked on a two year programme to shave A$1 billion in costs, and Gregg said on Tuesday that Qantas expects to exceed the current year's goal of saving A$350 million, mainly through labour costs.
"We are well on target to meet that," he said.
Reuters
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