Qantas earnings to reveal $3.3b fuel hit from US-Iran conflict as Project Sunrise London flights loom

Australia’s biggest airline is about to detail just how badly the various shocks from the Middle East conflict between the United States and Iran has dented its bottom line.

Qantas will release its full-year earnings on Thursday, after making a statutory profit of $925 million in the first half.

In mid April, Qantas said it hadn’t commenced a planned $150 million share buyback and was reducing domestic capacity because of the Middle East conflict.

It said that the price of jet fuel - its biggest expense - had more than doubled since February.

Like many airlines, Qantas hedges most of its exposure to crude oil, but remains exposed to the cost of refining crude oil into jet fuel.

That expense had increased dramatically from $US20 a barrel in February to a peak of around $US120 a barrel, Qantas said.

Consequently, the airline expected to spend $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion in the second half on jet fuel, up from its original estimate of $2.5 billion.

The airline may also give an update on Project Sunrise, its ambitious plan to launch direct flights to London and New York from Australia’s east coast.

The first specialised Airbus A350-1000ULR to be used for the long-haul routes touched down in Melbourne on July 24 following a test flight from the Airbus manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France.

Qantas is scheduled to take delivery of the aeroplane in April 2027 and begin flights between Sydney and London in October 2027.

The airline will also on Thursday open a new dedicated ground training facility at its campus just north of Sydney Airport, which will be used to teach emergency procedures to pilots and cabin crew.

It’ll compliment a separate flight training hub in nearby St Peters that features flight simulators and aircraft cabin mock-ups.