Will QAN survive?, page-2503

Both Mr Joyce as CEO and you appear to have forgotten page 22 of QAN's February 2022 presentation to holders (available on 'HC') that stated in respect of 2H 22, >90 per cent of fuel was hedged at (average?) of US$92.32 a barrel and assuming an A$/$US exchange rate of 0.71906.

For 1H 23, QAN commented that its 'fuel hedge book was effective at current market prices' but referred to US$86.61/barrel and the same exchange rate.

Today, Brent Crude (oil) is above US$113.00. We lack a window as to how long this will last but even allowing for a small rise in the A$, it's way above US$86.61 so it'll be a major worry for QAN if it doesn't drop in price by July 2022.

Mr Joyce in stating that mainland China was 'less than 10 per cent' was correct in the sense of it being a minor carrier of mainland communist Chinese internationally, as form memory it had cancelled its SYD - Shanghai flights pre-COVID and so these Chinese if on QAN would typically join in Hong Kong. However what he omitted is that these Chinese tended (again pre-COVID)) to travel on a median of two domestic flights, filling seats that would otherwise be vacant.

It was very misleading that he claimed 'strong demand compared to our competitors in and out of the country' when so many flights from SYD to Bangkok and Singapore have pathetic numbers of travellers departing Australia, and at least one way the same is true for the UK. Some flights may be busier coming in to Oz but that has to cover all the empty seats departing Australia.

Maybe he means 'busy' in how QAN's Singapore flights are down to about 20 per cent of what key competitor Singapore Airlines flies, such as from Melbourne to Singapore SQ having three daily flights and low-cost offshoot Scoot a daily flight compared to QAN 'red tails' only four days a week and subsidiary Jetstar thrice weekly, so on that route alone QAN is at 25 per cent of flight frequencies offered by the SQ Group. The latter is about to return to Cairns and Darwin, cities that QAN doesn't service.