Sydney — Australian airline Qantas has predicted losses of 1.1 billion Australian dollars (790 million US dollars) in the first six months of the 2022 financial year but said it has made progress in reducing debt.
" The Qantas Group has been able to accelerate the repair of its balance sheet and expects to finish the first half of FY22 with a materially better net debt position than it had prior to the start of Delta variant lockdowns in June," the company said on Thursday in a market update.
Australia's financial year starts on July 1 and ends the next year on June 30. The first-half earnings are due in February.
A 802-million-Australian-dollar sale of land and improved travel demand since the announcements of interstate and international borders reopening contributed to reduce the pandemic-driven debt, Qantas said.
"Collectively, these positive factors helped to partly offset trading conditions that were heavily depressed for most of the first half due to prolonged lockdowns in Melbourne and Sydney and compounded by border closures in other states that brought domestic flying down to a low of around 30 per cent of pre-COVID levels," it said.
By the end of December, the company projects that the debt will be 5.65 billion Australian dollars.
"The news of the Omicron variant had a clear impact on people's confidence to book international trips in particular, but we haven't seen large numbers of cancellations," Qantas Group head Alan Joyce said.
"Many customers have strong intentions to travel if the border and quarantine settings are right and in the past few days we have seen intakes improve."
Joyce said that the company expected "a strong performance" over the Christmas holidays and "continued strength into early next year as more restrictions ease."
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