{"id":870269,"date":"2026-08-27T13:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870269\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:08:13","slug":"qantas-airline-posts-2-billion-profits-despite-skyrocketing-fuel-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870269\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas: Airline posts $2 billion profits despite skyrocketing fuel bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite its best on-time performance in years, Qantas<\/a> has copped a 13 per cent hit to its full-year profits, due to skyrocketing fuel<\/a> costs driven by the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s<\/a> full-year profit<\/a>, released on Thursday, came in at $2.06 billion, a $330 million dip from last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Full-year profit dropped to $2.06 billion, down from $2.39 billion the previous year.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The primary driver of the drop was the war in the Middle East<\/a>, which added $610 million to the airline\u2019s total fuel bill as the conflict brought soaring costs.<\/p>\n

While Qantas managed to absorb some of those costs, it still suffered a direct $420 million hit to overall earnings.<\/p>\n

At the same time, both private travellers and corporate clients began cutting back on domestic and international flights<\/a> as consumer confidence slumped.<\/p>\n

Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson said both Qantas and Jetstar were performing strongly in the first half of the year before the conflict erupted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn response to the surge in fuel prices, we quickly adjusted fares and capacity and redeployed aircraft to give customers more options to fly to Europe<\/a>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese actions, along with other mitigations, limited the net impact on earnings to $420 million, despite a $610 million increase in our fuel bill.<\/p>\n

The multibillion-dollar profit came as the airline announced it had its best on-time performance in seven years.<\/p>\n

Workers poised to strike as Qantas record major profits<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of the enormous profit, Qantas copped major criticism from unions<\/a>, whose workers are poised to strike.<\/p>\n

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) slammed the group for its \u201canti-worker\u201d strategy as more than 600 Qantas Ground Service (QGS) workers voted on industrial action, with 100 more expected to also join.<\/p>\n

The TWU accused the airline\u2019s management of continuing the aggressive anti-worker tactics imposed by former chief executive Alan Joyce<\/a>, which it claims prioritise short-term profits. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Kaine slammed the airline following its annual results.\u00a0AAP<\/p>\n

It also said ground workers are now split across 38 subsidiaries and labor hire agencies, leading to eroded pay and conditions, high turnover, and severe safety failings.<\/p>\n

The union also noted the 14 improvement notices issued recently at Qantas Freight following a worker death last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine took aim at recent management decisions, including reported plans to offshore 1000 jobs through an artificial intelligence agreement and the closure of key regional bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of Qantas workers are now voting on industrial action. They\u2019ve had enough of this company doing everything possible to make their jobs less secure and less safe,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe must ensure Qantas profits benefit the whole Australian<\/a> public, not just Qantas executives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jetstar airport operations workers are set to vote early next week on potential protected industrial action.\u00a0iStock<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jetstar airport operations workers are set to vote early next week on potential protected industrial action after the Fair Work Commission approved an application by the Australian Services Union (ASU).<\/p>\n

The union slammed the airline for tying wages to a three per cent group pay policy, leaving Jetstar staff as the lowest-paid across the Qantas Group, despite the group delivering major profits and returning $700 million to shareholders.<\/p>\n

ASU assistant national secretary Scott Cowen questioned the company\u2019s priorities following the announcement, stating that workers are being asked by Jetstar to \u201caccept the bare minimum\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers don\u2019t want to have to take industrial action, but the company\u2019s complete failure to deal with the cost-of-living and extreme heat means that we\u2019re left with no other choice,\u201d Cowen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s $700 million to return to shareholders, there\u2019s money to pay Jetstar workers a fair wage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt says everything about Jetstar\u2019s priorities that on the same day the Qantas Group announces a bumper profit, our members are having to prepare a ballot just to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite its best on-time performance in years, Qantas has copped a 13 per cent hit to its full-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-870269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}