Aviation is an ever-evolving industry whereby changes may occur over a longer period of time or in rapid succession.
Sometimes developments can be big like the launch of a new route, a little more modest such as a new on board menu, or it can be a bit of both. Either way, changes are generally spread out across the industry with one airline announcing wi-fi on one day while another two sign up for code shares on another.
However, over the last three months, Qantas single-handedly made three major announcements, which the carrier’s Chief Executive says were introduced to improve the airline’s position in a competitive market.
In a financial update published to ASX, Alan Joyce said ongoing work to transform the carrier, particularly over the last few months, has allowed the airline to “navigate the headwings” better than key competitors.
“Internationally it’s still tough, with high levels of capacity growth pushing fares down, but we’ve seen those conditions ease slightly,” Joyce explained.
“Because of the work we’ve done to transform Qantas and expand into growth markets, our international businesses are navigating the headwinds better than our key competitors.”
What exactly have the last three crazy months looked like over at Qantas?
Rewind back to early March when the airline unveiled its new lounge at Brisbane Airport. The space is not only 30 percent larger than the previous lounge, it was designed to reflect Queensland and raise the bar for premium domestic travel with new restaurants and specialty beverage offerings.
In early April, the Flying made a lot of Netflix addicts happy when it launched tests for its super fast (and super free) wi-fi. After hitting a minor snag due to “the sheer size of Australia”, the technology is now flying high on one of its Boeing 737 aircraft and is on track to roll out across the rest of the domestic fleet later this year.
Then it all came to a peak late last month, when Qantas put the world-first direct Perth-London service on sale and managed to sell all Business Class and Premium Economy seats on the inaugural flight within the first 24 hours.
All this occurred in the midst of Qantas also trying to convince Australia and New Zealand’s governments to simplify trans-Tasman travel, launching a program to work with tech start-ups and increasing its appeal to job seekers.
“These are all things that improve our position in a competitive market and encourage more people to choose Qantas.”
Alan Joyce, Qantas Chief Executive
In addition to enticing flyers, changes are also contributing to the carrier’s future outlook and expectation to report an Underlying Profit Before Tax in the range of $1.35 billion to $1.40 billion for financial year 2017.
This reflects improving performance from Group Domestic and Qantas Loyalty partially offsetting a relatively weaker, but resilient, Group International performance in a highly competitive market.