Qantas says pandemic ‘existential crisis’ is over

BBC News:

The national carriers of Australia and New Zealand say that the worst of the coronavirus crisis is now behind them, even as they posted annual losses for a third year in a row.

Qantas says it is seeing demand increase “with the existential crisis posed by the pandemic now over”.

Air New Zealand says it has also experienced “a very strong recovery in bookings and revenues” since March.

Both countries had imposed some of the world’s strictest pandemic travel bans.

Qantas said in a statement on Thursday that its underlying loss before tax had widened to A$1.86bn ($1.3bn; £1.1bn) in the year to the end of June, from the previous year.

The company said it had lowered its net debt to a better than expected A$3.94bn.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said “the speed and scale of that recovery has been exceptional”.

“Our teams have done an amazing job through the restart and our customers have been extremely patient as the whole industry has dealt with sick leave and labour shortages in the past few months,” Mr Joyce added.

Australia reopened its borders to international visitors in February. That marked a closure of nearly two years.

Like much of the global airline industry, Qantas has been struggling to resume its services as borders reopened.

It asked senior executives to work as baggage handlers at the Sydney and Melbourne airports to tackle an acute labour shortage.