Qantas reveals $500 million loss caused by lockdowns

Qantas is forecasting a loss of more than $2 billion this financial year

The Aussie Airline has issued a statement to the ASX stating that recent COVID-19 lockdowns had cost the airline $500 million in earnings.

That included $15 million from Perth’s 3-day snap lockdown, $29 million from the Brisbane lockdown, and even worse, $400 million from the lockdown in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

A sustained rebound in the Australian domestic travel market and the performance of its Freight and Loyalty divisions continues to drive the Qantas Group’s recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.

The national carrier has recently pushed back its plan to restart international travel.

In a statement, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says:

“Managing costs remains a critical part of our recovery, especially given the revenue we’ve lost and the intensely competitive market we’re in.”

Joyce has called for urgency to speed up the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Australia, stating “Australia has to put the same intensity into the vaccine rollout as we’ve put on lockdowns and restrictions, because only then will we have the confidence to open up.”

“We’ve adjusted our expectations for when international borders will start opening based on the government’s new timeline,

Some Qantas crew are back at work – others are set to go

Qantas boss Alan Joyce said, “It’s great to see so many of our people now back at work and the majority of our fleet back in the air.”

The airline has reduced its workforce drastically since the start of the pandemic, with thousands of employees wither stood down or made redundant.

Qantas confirmed of approximately 22,000 roles across the Group, some 16,000 are currently stood up, including all domestic crew, all corporate employees and some international crew.

It’s understood the airline will ask international cabin crew to volunteer to be made redundant.