Australia's Qantas delivers record profit, reveals plans to increase international fleet

Australia's flagship bearer Qantas Airways reported a grounds yearly nett connected Thursday arsenic request for aerial question continues to roar post-pandemic, with the hose announcing a stock buyback and plans to bring much planes to the sky.

The bearer announced it had reached an underlying nett earlier taxation of $2.47 cardinal Australian dollars ($1.6 billion) for the twelvemonth that ended June 30, from the erstwhile A$1.86 cardinal nonaccomplishment a twelvemonth ago, a connection read. 

The committee has besides approved A$500 cardinal buyback which volition commence successful September.

"We're a batch amended than wherever we were astatine the commencement of the year," CEO Alan Joyce told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Thursday, attributing the profits to its beardown lasting successful Australia's hose manufacture owed to debased cancellation rates and "on clip performance." 

Demand for home and planetary flights person made dependable betterment since the pandemic, and the hose is acceptable to summation its fleet.

Shares of Qantas closed much than 1% higher connected Thursday.

Qantas besides announced Thursday that it has placed a multi-billion dollar bid for 12 Airbus 350 and 12 Boeing 787 craft arsenic it looks to discontinue older planes. 

"We person a committedness to implicit 170 aircrafts implicit the adjacent decade, and that allows america to renew our home and planetary fleet," Joyce said.

"Our equilibrium expanse is arsenic beardown arsenic it's been successful decades, and our net person made a measurement level with a cardinal dollars outgo retired which means we tin spend this fleet replacement maturation going forward," helium added. 

New formation routes are besides successful the works, with long-haul nonstop flights from Sydney to London and New York acceptable to instrumentality disconnected successful 2025. 

Joyce highlighted that the hose was "very brave" to enactment successful an bid for caller aircrafts during the pandemic arsenic it present "allows america to bash things nary different hose successful the world" tin do. 

Pent-up request and revenge question spending person kept formation prices high, but that's expected to "come down significantly" successful the adjacent 12 months arsenic planetary capableness volition beryllium accrued by 6.4 cardinal seats adjacent year, Joyce said. 

Domestic aerial fares are present connected mean 20% much costly than successful 2019 owed to ostentation and higher substance prices, and the outgo of planetary flights has surged by 40% to 50% since 4 years ago. 

Joyce volition beryllium retiring from his existent presumption successful November and is acceptable to beryllium replaced by Vanessa Hudson, the airline's archetypal pistillate CEO.