Qantas record profit: delight for shareholders, distrust and derision from customers

The company has achieved an eye-watering annual profit - but at the expense of soaring ticket prices, record complaints and plummeting trust

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It was a year of record-breaking numbers for Qantas - from eye-watering profits and margins, to ticket prices and customer complaints - and while shareholders and executives may be grinning, the airline is still staring down some key challenges and enemies.

The $2.47bn full-year underlying profit - helped by a ravenous travel demand, high air fares, lower jet fuel prices and a dramatic reduction of its structural costs - makes the company's previous record, of $1.6bn in 2018, look small.

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