Qantas has posted a full-year profit after tax of $6 million, a year after recording a historic loss of $244 million.
Despite tough competition on international and domestic routes, and high fuel prices, Qantas more than doubled its underlying earnings to $192 million.
Revenue crept up 1.1% to $15.9 billion.
"This result shows good progress in the group’s strategy against a challenging backdrop – with high fuel costs and intense competition," said chief executive Alan Joyce.
Joyce revealed that positive impacts included "last year’s Boeing settlement to compensate for delays in the Dreamliner programme".
Joyce said there remained ”a lot of bedding down” of the Emirates alliances in the new financial year but by 2014-15 it expected the full benefits of the tie-up to flow through.
The domestic premium operations, Jetstar and the frequent flyer division all made a profit, while international operations halved underlying losses to $246 million.
Jetstar’s underlying pre-tax earnings fell by 32% to $138 million for the year, which Joyce said reflected tough trading conditions in Australia and start up losses in Japan and Hong Kong.
Jetstar Hong Kong last week reached an important milestone, with formal gazettal by Hong Kong’s Air Transport Licensing Authority, Joyce said.
