Qantas Airways, Group CEO, Alan Joyce on the sidelines of the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2021

Transcript

Alan Joyce:So I think Qantas has a number of key strengths. First of all, we have an amazing domestic franchise with the best premium airline and the best low-cost carrier in the market. We also have an amazing loyalty program which has been unbelievably active during the COVID period. Has record levels of engagement, and people are using the points for everything at the ground at the moment and are very excited to be able to use them in the air. We've also, through COVID, had to do a major restructure that's taken $1 billion out of our cost base. And then we're in a phenomenal position, I think, to take advantage of when international borders gradually open up, because we're seen as the trusted carrier to fly Australians around the globe. And let people visit family and friends. I think the greatest challenges in '22 are around borders opening and stability on borders. What we're great that we're happening here in Australia is that the states are confirming the borders are opening and staying open. That gives people that security, that surety that they can book those holidays or make those business trips internationally. I think that may take a little bit of time. And I think what we're obviously having to watch for is new variants of COVID And if Omicron turns out the way it's looking at the moment, that it's a lot less of a threat than people were initially expecting, I think that will hopefully bring people confidence that we can manage any variants going forward and allow us to have that stability on borders. So domestically is one of our biggest growth opportunities. We're planning Jetstar to get to 120% of pre-COVID levels, Qantas to around 115%. And then we see international taking a while to get back to pre-COVID levels. We're also taking advantage of the freight market. We've made an announcement with Australia Post that we're converting 2 of our A330s to freighters because there's been a dramatic increase, a 72% increase in 2 years of e-commerce in this country. We think that's a step change and we're well-positioned to take advantage of that step change. So before COVID we had plans to start routes like Chicago. It was actually only a few months away. So, so we're— we think we'll gradually rebuild the network that we had before COVID and then look at expanding into America's big hubs like Chicago. The 787 gives us the range to be able to do that, particularly for Brisbane. And then we're still very keen on Project Sunrise that will allow us to get aircraft, we're hoping by '25, that can fly anywhere in the United States and take advantage of that amazing relationship. And also since COVID Alaskan Airlines have joined Oneworld and they've been always a good partner to us, but they are very big in places like San Francisco where we've struggled in the past because American's been smaller. And are very big, obviously, in Seattle. So we think that also creates opportunities of network expansion in the US for the group.

Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of CAPA - Centre for Aviation. Our reproduction policy is as follows: you may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to CAPA - Centre for Aviation and link to the original video page. All other use is prohibited. While we aim for 100% accuracy in the transcript, there may be some minor transcribing errors.