Australasian airline update: earnings briefings reveal more about fleet strategies

With the three major Australasian airlines all releasing their annual results within a 24-hour span in 3Q2025, new details emerged that shed more light on their fleet and capacity plans.

Senior executives from Qantas, Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand had already shared a lot of information about their companies during the CAPA Australia Pacific Airline Leader Summit on 31-Jul-2025, prompting a recent two-part analysis of their plans: Australasian airlines make progress on fleet upgrades: part one - Qantas and Air Niugini; part two - Air New Zealand & Virgin Australia.

However, enough additional commentary came out of the earnings briefings that another update is warranted.

The major new development was Qantas almost doubling its firm orders for Airbus A321XLRs for its full-service fleet, with plans for a new cabin configuration. The airline also fleshed out the picture a little more regarding the launch of its 'Project Sunrise'.

Air New Zealand has bumped up its order for Boeing 787 widebodies, but in the shorter term it continues to face major issues due to aircraft availability.

Virgin Australia, meanwhile, is confident that its Boeing 737 MAX delivery stream will increase significantly in the current fiscal year, after slowing to a trickle in the previous year.

All three airlines were solidly profitable in the fiscal year 2025 - but, as usual, it was some of the other commentary that proved more interesting.

Fiscal year 2026 began on 1-Jul-2025 for the three airlines.