Australia Post and Toll deals to the fore as parent firm fires on all cylinders
Qantas Freight has seen a nearly five-fold boost in net earnings as the group reports net annual profits of $557 million.
While the group made a $1.6 billion turnaround from a $2.8 billion loss last financial year, the freight arm’s earnings before interest and tax of $114 million came after it earnt $24 million the year before.
“The business renewed Australia Post as its biggest domestic freight customer, as well as adding a new major customer in Toll Group,” group CEO Allan Joyce notes as the ‘Qantas Transformation’ initiative shows its worth and all segments show a profit.
Australia Post’s present contract was renewed for further five years while the arm gained a new five-year contract with Toll Group, using Qantas and Jetstar aircraft belly space.
It also saw the end of Australian air Express legacy agreements in June.
While net freight revenue was actually down 2 per cent to $936 million, the international load factor was up 2 per cent.
“The significantly improved performance was led by the delivery of $38 million of benefits from the Qantas Transformation program, including the introduction of new technology to improve productivity and customer experience, together with strong performance from the International Freighter network,” the company explains.
“Stronger cargo load factors helped offset yield reductions in a very competitive domestic freight market.”
Yield is calculated as freight revenue excluding foreign exchange divided by revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs).