It was a year of record-breaking numbers for Qantas – from eye-watering profits and margins, to ticket prices and customer complaints – and while shareholders and executives may be grinning, the airline is still staring down some key challenges and enemies.
The $2.47bn full-year underlying profit – helped by a ravenous travel demand, high air fares, lower jet fuel prices and a dramatic reduction of its structural costs – makes the company’s previous record, of $1.6bn in 2018, look small.
