New jets fuel Qantas profits but shares still nosedive

Kaaren Morrissey and Derek Rose | February 26, 2026

Australia’s biggest airline’s investment in new aircraft is paying off, reducing costs while opening up potential extra routes.

Qantas Group on Thursday posted an underlying pre-tax profit of $1.5 billion for the six months to December, slightly ahead of expectations and up about five per cent from the same time in 2024.

Qantas and Jetstar took delivery of nine new aircraft in the half, with a fourth long-range, narrow-body Airbus A321XLR delivered for flights between Brisbane and Manila.

Chief executive Vanessa Hudson said another 30 new aircraft would arrive in the next 30 months, including the Airbus A350s that will be used on Qantas “Project Sunrise” non-stop flights to New York and London from mid-2027.

“In my three decades at Qantas, I can’t remember a level of new aircraft deliveries in such a short period of time,” she told reporters.

Jetstar is further along with its fleet-renewal program and Ms Hudson said 60 per cent of its $53 million increase in earnings growth was driven by its next-generation aircraft.

The budget carrier has 22 A321LRs and five A320neos, which it used to open four international routes in the half, including to the Indonesian city of Denpasar.

The new aircraft delivered better fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs and greater flexibility, Ms Hudson said.

“This is critical for Jetstar, because it continues to enable us to provide our customers with low fares,” she said.

But Ms Hudson warned that aircraft charges and government fees had grown at double the rate of inflation over the past 12 months, although she added Qantas was offsetting those costs when possible for customers.

The group’s flow of money will add to an increased interim dividend for shareholders totalling $300 million, or 19.8 cents a share – a 20 per cent increase.

It will also spend up to $150 million buying back shares.

EToro market analyst Josh Gilbert said Qantas’s result was mixed, with better-than-expected headline profit but a less clean underlying picture.

The company’s chief executive was navigating a “serious balancing act”, he said, with the airline staring down up to $4.3 billion in net capital expenditure for its fleet renewal programs against a backdrop of softer demand.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell also called it a mixed result with Qantas’s overall profit a small beat to expectations but earnings from international operations missing predictions.

Qantas shares shot up 4.1 per cent in the first minutes of trading but then gave up those gains and were down 5.4 per cent to a three-month low of $10.08 at close to midday.

Ms Hudson said demand for economy flights to the United States had been softer than expected, although she attributed that to a weaker Aussie dollar rather than problems with tight border controls.

Inbound demand from the US to Australia was still strong, she added.

Qantas is redeploying one of its A380s from flights to Los Angeles and will use it instead on flights to Singapore, where demand has been stronger.  

The airline also announced it would launch the first direct flight between Sydney and Las Vegas, a seasonal flight that will run from December 29 until March 12, 2027.