Qantas chief delegate and chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson, who will take over as chief executive from Alan Joyce in November, said the group’s activity must be underpinned by sustainability.

“We’re determined to be a leader in this space and that’s supported by the new commitments we’ve made today, as well as calling for more action industry-wide in the form of a sustainable aviation fuel mandate,” she said.

“Our long-term focus remains delivering for customers, employees and shareholders, and making sure we have a strong business that generates strong returns is the best way to enable that.”

Made from crops, household waste, animal fat and other biomass, sustainable aviation fuel produces about one-fifth of the emissions of conventional jet fuel. Qantas says it wants sustainable fuel to account for 10 per cent of its fuel use by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2050, but there’s a global supply issue.

The group has committed $110 million to its existing $290 million investment to kickstart Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry. Part of the $400 million will also be invested in “high integrity offsets” to help the group meet its waste reduction targets.

Currently, there’s only enough sustainable aviation fuel being produced to replace less than 1 per cent of the global aviation industry, at more than double the price of conventional jet fuel. Qantas spends $5 billion on jet fuel a year.

“This is a structurally different business than it was before COVID, operating in markets that have also changed … New technology is central to our plan and the next-generation aircraft that have started arriving will transform our network over the next few years,” Joyce said.

“We’ll be able to serve our customers better, reduce our cost base through lower running costs, and carve out some new competitive advantages.”

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Qantas has set an 18 per cent margin target for Qantas Domestic and 15 per cent for Jetstar Domestic from the 2024 financial year. It’s increased Qantas International margin targets from before the pandemic to above 8 per cent in financial year 2024, and 10-12 per cent as Project Sunrise takes off.

Qantas Freight will target $250 million in annual earnings contribution from financial year 2030 in recognition of the e-commerce boom. Qantas Loyalty is expected to reach its financial year 2024 earnings target of between $500 million and $600 million. These targets will increase to between $800 million and $1 billion by financial year 2030.

The group announced in March it would create 8500 jobs over the next decade, after axing 9800 roles from its 30,000-member workforce during the pandemic as part of its $1 billion restructure. Qantas said attrition rates across the group had declined from a peak of 18 per cent in December 2021 to 5 per cent, and it had received 160,000 applications for 7000 advertised roles.

Qantas’s share price closed 2.7 per cent higher on Tuesday at $6.59.

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