Australia's Qantas returns to profitability in first quarter - CEO
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Qantas Airways Ltd said on Friday it had returned to underlying profitability in the first three months of the financial year, as it benefited from its strategy of containing seating availability to drive up fares.
Chief executive officer Alan Joyce told Qantas's annual general meeting that passenger loads and profitability were up both domestically and internationally.
"Preliminary figures indicate that the group has made an underlying profit before tax for the first quarter of financial year 2015," Joyce told the meeting, according to notes published by the Australian Securities Exchange.
Australia's flagship carrier in August reported an underlying net loss of A$646 million (352.29 million pounds) for the 2013/14 year to June 30.
But it booked a A$2.8 billion net loss for the year as it wrote down the value of its fleet and suffered from a price war with rival domestic carrier Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd .
Both airlines have since declared the price war over and said they will now focus on cutting growth in seating capacity to bump up passenger volumes, putting upward pressure on fares.
Joyce said growth in seating capacity for Qantas's international operations was expected to grow 2.4 percent in the six months to Dec. 31, "below underlying demand growth for the first time in five years".
Qantas shares were 4 percent stronger at A$1.43 in mid-session trading, their highest since Oct. 1, while the broad S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.5 percent.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Stephen Coates)
