Qantas said it ordered 24 aircraft to progressively replace its ageing fleet of Airbus A330s over the next decade, half of them Airbus A350s and the other half Boeing 787s.

Hudson said she was confident the ongoing supply-chain disruptions affecting Boeing and Airbus orders all over the world would not be an issue by the time Qantas’ order is due to begin arriving.

“We feel really confident that the production lines will be back in full swing... I think the one thing that we’ve seen with Boeing and Airbus that they are absolutely committed to delivering aircraft when they do,” Hudson said.

Qantas, like many global airline businesses around the world including Singapore Airlines and Emirates, has bounced back quickly from the pandemic, thanks to the overwhelming demand for travel since border controls relaxed in 2022.

In soothing news for travellers slugged with ticket prices that are above what they paid before the pandemic, Joyce said Qantas’ fares officially peaked late last year. Domestic fares remain about 4 per cent higher than pre-COVID and international ticket prices are 10 per cent higher.

The result is close to $1 billion higher than Qantas’ prior record result of $1.6 billion in 2018.

The $10.7 billion aviation company had flagged it expected to post a record underlying profit of between $2.43 billion and $2.48 billion when it increased its on-market buyback by up to $100 million in May. Its net debt came in at $2.89 billion, lower than its target range.

The business issued frequent flyers a gift of additional points or status credits via its app and also awarded $500 in travel credits to all staff members.

With its record results, it now also announced another $500 million shareholder buyback to take place next month, to add to the $1 billion returned to shareholders last financial year.

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Goldman Sachs’ equity research team headed by Niraj Shah said the group’s domestic travel arm remains resilient.

“We believe that booking curve is up to 1.5 months for domestic and 4-5 months for international and this is set against 1H24 group domestic capacity at 103 per cent pre-COVID and Group International at 89 per cent of pre-COVID,” the analysts said on Thursday.

UBS’s Andrew Fromyhr said the market is more concerned with the outlook into this financial year than last year’s result.

“On that front, if the company can build confidence in the resilience of demand (e.g. intakes, fares, RRIA) and stability of the cost base, then the market may start to put a higher probability on Qantas hitting its FY24 targets and sustaining its current earnings run rate for longer.”

Earlier this year, Joyce announced he would step down as Qantas chief executive after the group’s annual general meeting in November.

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