The head of Qantas says the company has no plans to sell off its budget airline Jestar.
The chief executive of Qantas, Geoff Dixon, says Jetstar is generating the best returns for the company with its high level of patronage in Australia.
He has told Channel Nine the low-cost airline is too important to make into a separate company.
“Under my leadership we would never let Jetstar go without a major interest being retained by Qantas,” Mr Dixon said.
“Right at the moment, that is not a proposal, I mean that was speculation by a columnist and we usually don’t comment on speculation like that.”
However, the airline’s chief financial officer, Peter Gregg, provided another point of view at a luncheon in Melbourne last week;
“We are looking to extend the segmentation in our business but ultimately if you could extract more out of it, we might consider it,” Mr Gregg said , when asked about a possible listing for Jetstar.
“It’s possible but it’s not a hot topic. It’s definitely possible,” he said.
There are suggestions that Qantas may look to offload Jetstar to fund a much anticipated strong push into the freight business.
Watch this space.
