Qantas, Virgin see profits rise amid high demand, low domestic competition: ACCC

Qantas Group and Virgin Australia are benefiting from strong demand for flying and minimal competition in the domestic airline sector, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest (ACCC) report. 

In the report, which was released on May 20, 2025, the ACCC said that both Qantas Group and Virgin Australia recorded significant profits in the first half of 2024–25. 

Qantas Group reported an underlying EBIT of $916 million from its domestic operations and $1.5 billion from its whole operations. According to the report, Virgin Australia said it had achieved “record profits.” Meanwhile, Qantas domestic and Jetstar domestic services contributed $647 million and $269 million, respectively. 

According to the ACCC report, much of Qantas domestic’s financial performance can be attributed to the carrier’s “dominance in the business-purpose travel segment.” The airline reported that it accounted for approximately 80% of the total corporate segment traffic and 54% of total small and medium-sized enterprise segment traffic in the first half of 2024–25. 

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia’s finances have strengthened significantly following a post-administration restructure under global private investment firm Bain Capital, which included retiring Tigerair Taiwan, reducing the number of aircraft types, and scaling back its international flying, the report continued. Virgin Australia is preparing for a possible initial public offering potentially as early as June 2025.  

The airline group is also set to expand its international service offering from June 2025 with the commencement of 28 new weekly return flights between Australia and Doha, in partnership with Qatar Airways.  

According to the ACCC, the average industry on-time arrival rate in Australia has increased over the past few months from 74.5% in October 2024 to 80.2% in March 2025, which is slightly below the long-term industry average of 80.7%. 

The average load factor has stayed over 80% for eight months up to March 2025, with load factors varying by airline, the report continued. For example, Jetstar showed 91.2% seat occupancy in January 2025, the highest among all airlines in the ACCC’s dataset. 

The average revenue per passenger fell by 16.1% in the three months leading to January 2025, then rose by 9.6% by March 2025, the report said. The post Qantas, Virgin see profits rise amid high demand, low domestic competition: ACCC appeared first on AeroTime.

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