Qantas is upbeat for a return to profit

Qantas Airways, Australia’s biggest carrier, jumped the most in a year as it forecast a return to profit, after posting a record A$2.84bn ($2.7bn) annual loss. The group will be profitable in the six months to December as an oversupply of seats subsides and a A$2bn cost-cutting programme starts to pay off, the Sydney-based airline said in a regulatory statement yesterday. The prospect of renewed profits provides breathing space for CEO Alan Joyce as he cuts 5,000 jobs amid a market share war that has driven down ticket prices. He has decided against selling part of Qantas’s loyalty programme, its most profitable division, and is turning the loss-making international unit into a separate operating company. ‘They seem like they may have turned the corner,’ Sam Fimis, a private client adviser at Patersons Securities, said from Melbourne. The forecast of a return to profit ‘gives traders and investors an excuse to have a look at the stock again,’ according to BusinessDay.