The Qantas Group continued to deliver strong earnings in a mixed market in the first half of FY20, with an Underlying Profit Before Tax of $771 million and a Statutory Profit Before Tax of $648 million.
- Underlying Profit Before Tax: $771 million (down 0.5%)
- Statutory Profit Before Tax: $648 million (down 6.2%)
- Record revenue for the Group and record profit for Loyalty
- Statutory Earnings Per Share: 28.8c (up 3.2%)
- Return On Invested Capital: 19.6%
- Net free cash flow: $213 million
- Shareholder return of up to $351 million: 13.5 cents per share fully franked dividend (up 12.5% from 1H19) plus an off-market share buy-back of up to $150 million
- Coronavirus response: Group International capacity to Asia cut by 15 per cent to at least end of May; flexibility to adjust up or down depending on developments. Annual leave program to manage employee impact
- Impact of Coronavirus after capacity adjustments and lower fuel costs on FY20 Underlying EBIT is estimated at $100 million – $150 million.
The Underlying result was $4 million less than the same period last year – despite $51 million in higher foreign exchange related cost impacts, a $68 million impact from global freight weakness and disruption in Hong Kong, and a $55 million increase in operating costs from the sale of domestic airport terminals.
The Group has triggered a response to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus on second half earnings, which is focused on cutting capacity on affected markets and retaining flexibility to scale this response up or down as circumstances require.
