Preflight

Back in black – Qantas flags healthy first half profit

International arm on track for return to profitability

Qantas’s international operations are expected to make a positive contribution to the airline’s return to profitability in the first half of 2014/15 as the carrier makes “rapid progress” with its three-year, $2 billion cost-cutting program.

The pronounced turnaround on the performance of Qantas’s international flying comes as the company pointed the market to an underlying profit before tax in the first half of 2014/15 in the vicinity of $300-350 million amid lower fuel prices and as the airline group’s cost-cutting measures bear fruit.