Will QAN survive?, page-1333

Qantas reports underlying pre-tax loss of $1.83b in “diabolical” year

William McInnes

Qantas has reported a better than expected pre-tax loss for the 2021 financial year and says it had started the new financial year in a solid position to manage its recovery.

The company’s revenue tumbled 58.4 per cent to $5.9 billion during the year, leading to a $1.83 billion underlying pre-tax loss. Markets had been expecting a loss of $1.92 billion.

The statutory loss before tax – which includes one-off costs such as redundancies and aircraft write downs – was $2.35 billion.

“This loss shows the impact that a full year of closed international borders and more than 330 days of domestic travel restrictions had on the national carrier. The trading conditions have frankly been diabolical,” said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.

“It comes on top of the significant loss we reported last year and the travel restrictions we’ve seen in the past few months. By the end of this calendar year, it’s likely COVID will cost us more than $20 billion in revenue.”

The airline said the recent outbreaks and associated domestic and trans-Tasman border closures were expected to have an impact in the order of $1.4 billion on the group’s underlying EBITDA in the first half of FY22.

This estimate assumes borders in Victoria and New South Wales re-open in early December 2021.

Qantas did not declare a dividend for the 2021 financial year.