The Qantas Group will invest a further $80 million in customer improvements across FY24 in addition to the $150 million previously budgeted, which will be funded from profits.
Qantas said that the additional investment is aimed at addressing a number of customer ‘pain points’ through improvements such as better contact centre resourcing and training, an increase in the number seats that can be redeemed with Frequent Flyer points, more generous recovery support when operational issues arise, a review of longstanding policies for fairness and improvements to the quality of inflight catering.
Qantas said that it is also working to accelerate some initiatives already underway, such as the re-platforming of the Qantas app. More details on these actions will be shared in the coming weeks.
The airline said that overall travel demand remains strong, with trading conditions in the first quarter of FY24 similar to the last quarter of FY23.
Qantas and Jetstar expect to carry more than 4 million passengers over the September/October school holidays and football finals period on almost 35,000 domestic and international services. This compares with around 3.7 million passengers on approximately 28,000 services over the same four-week period last year.
Qantas said that fuel prices have increased by around 30 per cent since May 2023, including a 10 per cent spike since August. This is driven by a combination of higher oil prices, higher refiner margins and a lower Australian dollar.
If sustained, this is expected to see the Group’s 1H24 fuel bill increase by approximately $200 million to $2.8 billion after hedging. A further $50 million impact is expected due to non-fuel-related foreign exchange changes.
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The Group will continue to absorb these higher costs, but will monitor fuel prices in the weeks ahead and, if current levels are sustained, will look to adjust its settings. Any changes would look to balance the recovery of higher costs with the importance of affordable travel in an environment where fares are already elevated.
Qantas said that new aircraft deliveries and wet-leasing arrangements will help Qantas and Jetstar boost international capacity by 12 percentage points by the end of the calendar year – an increase of almost 50 additional flights a week.
This includes Qantas resuming its Sydney-Shanghai services and starting two new routes, Brisbane-Wellington and Brisbane-Honiara, as well as a new Jetstar service from Brisbane to Tokyo.
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