Qantas hopes to resume some overseas flights in December after it suffered a $1.83bn pre-tax loss.
Alan Joyce, chief executive of Qantas, blamed the results on diabolical border conditions. He noted that the financial situation reflected a full-year of closed international borders and more restrictions than 330 days for domestic travel.
Joyce claims that Covid has already cost the airline $16bn in revenues so far and he expects that number to rise to $20bn by 2021.
Qantas employees remain inactive in both domestic and international operations. The Transport Workers Union responded to Thursday's financial announcement by calling for an equity stake to be taken by the government. This is due to the $2bn of public funding that the airline received during the pandemic.
The airline announced on Thursday that it will resume international travel in the coming months, despite the loss and Australia's most populous countries being under indefinite lockdowns.
Qantas has announced that it will resume flights according to the 80% target for fully vaccinated population set out in the National Cabinets plan C of reopening.
Qantas has indicated that highly vaccinated countries top its list. The company assumes that flights between Australia, New Zealand and Australia will resume in December.
The airline has also identified Singapore, Japan, Canada, Fiji, and the United States as destinations it plans to fly to starting mid-December. However, it noted that travel uptake will depend on the government's decision on mandatory hotel isolation for fully-vaccinated travellers.
Qantas' plans to fly to places with lower vaccination rates such as Bali, Jakarta and Manila, Bangkok, Phuket or Ho Chi Minh City have been delayed from December to April next.
The federal ban on Australians entering the country from March 2020, which was introduced by the federal government, is still in effect.
Qantas appears to be becoming increasingly frustrated by the state governments' hard-line domestic border closings.
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The airline used to fly direct from Perth to London before the pandemic. They also wanted to make Darwin a stopover point for travelers from the east coast. However, they are now looking at Darwin as a transit location after flying directly from Europe to Darwin for government-organised repatriation flights.
Qantas suggested Darwin as an alternative or addition to Perth, given the conservative Western Australian border policies. According to Qantas, discussions are ongoing about this possibility.
Qantas' 2020-21 revenue dropped by 58.4%, to $5.93bn. However, net debt was reduced from $6.05bn in December last year to $5.9bn at the end of June.
Qantas will not pay any dividends to its shareholders for the financial year.
Joyce stated that things remain difficult, particularly for thousands of people who are waiting to return to work when borders open and hopefully stay open.
We want to get them back to work as quickly as possible. That is why we have been increasing our flying and adding new destinations prior to the latest lockdowns.
He said that if Australia meets its critical vaccination targets by the end of this year, and future lockdowns or border closures decrease, we can expect a surge in domestic travel demand as well as a gradual return to international travel.
Joyce, who had to revise the international resumption of his airlines previously, said that he cannot rule out the possibility of having to move them again.
It is clear that the rest of the world, especially in Europe, the United States and the UK, is opening up, according to CEOs of airline companies overseas. Australia has now developed a plan to reopen.
Joyce acknowledged that the possibility of flying overseas may seem far off, and that some people may still be too optimistic.
The current pace of vaccine rollout means that all Australian states are on track for reaching the 80% target by December. This is the trigger to open some parts of the globe to vaccinations.
The airline has released a new commercial earlier this week that encourages the use of Covid-19, appealing to Australians who long to travel again.
Qantas launches an inspiring video advertisement for a vaccine-free future at 01:30
Qantas announced last week that all its employees will be required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as the debate over mandatory vaccinations in Australian workplaces continues. It was previously expected that passengers travelling on international flights would need to be vaccinated.
Qantas laid off another 2,500 domestic employees at the beginning of August, in addition to the 6,000 international workers.
