News

Qantas rules out selling loyalty programme

28 Aug 2014 by GrahamSmith

Qantas will not be selling its frequent flyer programme despite recording its biggest ever annual loss.

The Australian airline will retain its Qantas Frequent Flyer loyalty scheme, CEO Kevin Joyce confirmed today.

The news came as Qantas announced a net loss of A$2.8 billion for the 12 months to June, the worst results in the carrier's history.

The losses are partly due to a A$2.6 billion write-down on its international fleet and, Qantas said, weak domestic demand, limited consumer spending and rising fuel costs.

Joyce said: "We have now come through the worst. With our accelerated Qantas transformation programme we are already emerging as a leaner, more focused and more sustainable Qantas group."

He added: "After careful consideration, our judgment was that Qantas Loyalty continued to offer major profitable growth opportunities, and there was insufficient justification for a partial sale."

In February, Qantas announced it was axeing 5,000 jobs, including 1,500 in senior management positions (see news, February 27).

The airline has now completed 2,500 of these redundancies, the pay-outs from which have contributed to its record annual loss.

Last month, Emirates ruled out the possibility of buying a stake in Qantas, following the decision by the Australian government to relax foreign ownership restrictions on its national airline (see news, July 21).

qantas.com.au

Graham Smith

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