Qantas profit tumbles as fuel costs soar

Qantas profits have taken a hit as rising fuel costs outpaced the benefit of sustained demand for international travel.

The airline posted a 13.8 per cent fall in underlying pre-tax profit of $330 million in the year ended June 2026. Underlying pre-tax profit is $2.06 billion, down from $2.39 billion in 2025. The company said its fuel bill jumped by over $600 million.

CEO Vanessa Hudson said: “The final four months of the year saw business and consumer confidence fall as the conflict and economic headwinds created uncertainty.”

Qantas said this forced some large corporates and government customers to cut travel budgets. “In response to the surge in fuel prices, we quickly adjusted fares and capacity, and redeployed aircraft to give customers more options to fly to Europe,” Hudson said.

“These actions, along with other mitigations, limited the net impact on earnings to $420 million, despite a $610 million increase in our fuel bill.”

Spiralling fuel costs driven by the US-Israel conflict with Iran have put pressure on the aviation industry. Six weeks after the conflict began, Qantas flagged a $600 million to $800 million increase to its fuel bill, coming in at about $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion. Fuel is typically one of the largest expenses for airlines.

Qantas, and rival Virgin, have been forced to trim domestic routes to account for a slowdown in demand, as the cost of living increase cut into travel budgets.