Qantas pegs travel hope on vaccine rollout

Qantas hopes to resume some international flights by the end of the year on the expectation Australia's vaccination rollout will hit major milestones by then and allow borders to reopen.

The national carrier is planning to restart flights to COVID-safe destinations such as New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada from the middle of December.

That is based on projections Australia will reach the National Cabinet's Phase C vaccination threshold of 80 per cent in December 2021, triggering the gradual reopening of international borders.

It is also hoping for unrestricted domestic travel a month earlier, with the country's overall vaccination rate expected to hit 70 per cent in November.

"When Australia reaches those critical vaccination targets later this year and the likelihood of future lockdowns and border closures reduces, we expect to see a surge in domestic travel demand and a gradual return of international travel," CEO Alan Joyce said on Thursday.

Qantas shares jumped on the news, and had risen 3.3 per cent to $5.03 by 1430 AEST.

In line with those plans, Qantas will bring five A380s - its largest passenger aircraft - back into service from mid-2022 to fly on the Sydney to Los Angeles route, followed by Sydney to London from November 2022.

However, the airline still does not expect to start flying to more risky destinations such as Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok and Johannesburg until April next year.

Qantas' optimistic outlook follows a harrowing year of losses amid "diabolical" conditions as the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on the carrier.

It narrowed a full-year net loss to $1.73 billion from $1.9 billion a year earlier.

Revenue for the 12 months to June 30 slid 58.4 per cent to $5.93 billion as international and domestic border closures continued to disrupt air travel.

On an underlying basis - which excludes one-off costs such as redundancies and aircraft write-downs - Qantas swung to a pre-tax loss of $1.83 billion from a profit of $124 million a year ago.

The airline said it had lost a total of $16 billion in revenue due to COVID-19 so far, with minimal international travel and multiple waves of domestic border restrictions hitting travel demand.

Its domestic business posted an underlying earnings loss of $669 million, largely because of a series of state lockdowns.

The international and freight division reported an underlying earnings loss of $1 billion for the year.

"Despite the uncertainty that's still in front of us, we're in a far better position to manage it than this time last year. We're able to move quickly when borders open and close. We're a leaner and more efficient organisation," Mr Joyce said.

Qantas managed to cut its total debt from $6.4 billion in February to $5.9 billion by June-end and had liquidity of $3.8 billion.

The airline's restructuring program has also delivered savings of $650 million in its first year. Qantas said it, along with subsidiary Jetstar have now scrapped 9400 jobs, while another 8000-odd employees have been stood down.

The company warned the recent domestic and trans-Tasman border closures continue to cloud its outlook and will result in a $1.4 billion hit to group earnings in the first half of 2021/22.

The airline will extend the stand-downs of domestic crew and airport staff beyond the eight weeks previously announced - if borders remain closed.

Qantas did not pay any dividend for the year.

QANTAS FY RESULTS

* Revenue down 58.4pct to $5.93b

* Underlying loss before tax $1.83b vs $0.124b profit

* Statutory net loss 1.7b vs $1.9b

* Dividend nil