Qantas and Jetstar cash in on lack of airline competition
Australia's sole budget carrier has cashed in on the lack of competition in the nation's aviation sector.
Within the Qantas Group's whopping $1.5 billion earnings before tax in the first half of 2024-25, Jetstar jacked up prices to record an operating margin of 18 per cent.
That is up from 13 per cent in the first half of the 2023-24 financial year, the increase coinciding with fellow budget airline Bonza's collapse in April 2024.
It helped delivered a massive earnings increase for the Qantas Group, with Jetstar domestic flight revenue jumping 54 per cent in that same time frame.
The findings come from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's quarterly look at domestic airline competition, which found both Qantas and Virgin Australia had recorded impressive financial results in the back half of 2024.
Virgin has not publicly reported its half-year results, although chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said in February it had achieved record profits.
ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said Jetstar's earnings jump was largely explained by Bonza's demise.
Compared with an 18 per cent operating margin on domestic flights, Jetstar's international flights were at 15 per cent due to the increased competition, the report said.
'The high half-yearly earnings reported by Qantas Group reflect its dominance of the domestic airline sector, with Qantas and Jetstar accounting for over 60 per cent of passengers,' Brakey said.
'Jetstar has been able to capitalise on the continued absence of competitive pressure from another low-cost carrier in the domestic market to increase its market share and operating margin.'
The report found airlines had improved their punctuality in the past six months from 74.5 per cent to 80.2 per cent.
But that still sits below the industry's long-term average of 80.7 per cent.
'It is encouraging to see the on-time arrival rate improving as this means travellers can have more confidence that their flight will arrive at the time they booked,' Brakey said.
The cancellation rate spiked in the March quarter to five per cent — way above the long-term mark of 2.2 per cent — but that period included ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The average airfare increased by 9.6 per cent between the three months to January 2025 and March 2025, but the ACCC did not find that result to be too alarming.
'The trends observed in average airfares since January reflect seasonal factors and are broadly consistent with those observed in previous years,' Brakey said.
'Average airfares have come down from their peak in October 2024.'
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Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Saved from the wrecking ball, AMP building reopens as a glittering star on Circular Quay
There was a frogman in its seawater tank. And the glass facade of the skyscraper was sprinkled with gold dust. Little wonder that the 1962 opening of Australia's then-tallest building, the 117-metre-high AMP 'Sydney Cove' building at Sydney's Circular Quay, would excite the nation and attract a million tourists, including Queen Elizabeth, to its observation deck within a year. Opening the modernist H-shaped office block at 33 Alfred Street, then-prime minister Sir Robert Menzies said it was a 'towering symbol' that 'quickened the imagination'. The city's first real skyscraper, the 26-storey office block by the late architect Graham Thorp, took advantage of a change in legislation to break the city's 150-foot (46-metre) height limit imposed in 1912. That started 'the skyscraper phenomenon' of higher buildings and increased density. Until then, Sydney had been a short and old-fashioned city, and the public feared it would go the way of New York. On Friday morning, Premier Chris Minns and Lord Mayor Clover Moore reopened the 63-year-old building at 33 Alfred Street. Minns said: 'The great thing about this project is that they didn't call in the wrecking balls. They called in some of our best architects and engineers and created an absolutely beautiful building.' The reopening follows a three-year restoration and modernisation by architects Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW) for co-owners Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund, with heritage consultants Urbis. With AMP now housed in the Quay Quarter building, the newly modernised office block is expected to become home to some of Australia's top law firms, including Allens which is expected to take over the floor that was once a public observation deck. As Sydney's first real skyscraper, Minns said 33 Alfred had helped define the city. A symbol of post-war growth and architectural ambition, it married the best of the old with the best of the new. 'What this project shows is we can still do great things in the city.' He was taken with the curve of the roof seen from observation deck: 'When it is stretched again the blue sky on a wonderful Friday in Sydney, it looks like the wing of a Pan Am airplane. They don't make buildings like that any more.' Moore said the AMP building had to go up in height so it could look over the Cahill Expressway, which she described as a continuing blight that blocked views and separated the city from the harbour. By retaining the AMP instead of demolishing it, Moore said the redevelopment had saved tonnes of carbon and reduced emissions. It was also the culmination of the city's award-winning Quay Quarter redevelopment, which resulted in new laneways with restaurants and the restoration and reuse of heritage buildings. Dexus said the building had been transformed into a state-of-the-art office tower spanning about 32,000 square metres. Its re-use of the existing structure minimised landfill waste, extended the lifecycle of the building and was developed to achieve a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating for the base building, and a 6-Star Green Star. Its heritage listing by the state two years ago said the facade was covered with gold dust. Dexus' general manager of development Nicholas Wilkinson said he didn't think it was real. 'I wish it was,' he said. Thorp wrote in the Herald in 1962 that the building's shape would not have been seen elsewhere in the world. A curtain wall spandrel with gold-fused backing was used to give a reflective surface with a constantly changing pattern in sunlight. During the restoration, parts of the original facade – the famous curtain walls – were retained. The rest was updated with a material that Wilkinson said sparkled like the original to honour its heritage but used contemporary techniques. The windows were also changed because the views across one of the world's most famous harbours were 'located somewhere between the hips and the chin of the average person standing up. With some smart design, there is now a good line of sight to the harbour.' 'That's where the magic happens,' he said. Nobody has any record of the original frogmen who cleaned the seawater air-conditioning system that created a steady indoor climate in the building. During the restoration, Wilkinson said divers had cleaned and repaired pipes under the ferry wharves to remove seawater, crustaceans, and other matter. Built in 21 months, it was expected to last 40 years. But now it appears increasingly small in contrast with many other tall buildings, including Sydney's tallest, One Crown at 271 metres high, and others expected to go even higher. Wilkinson said engineers had certified the newly renovated office block for another 50 years, but they expected it would outlast that estimate. He said the building was now setting a precedent for the sensitive renewal and reuse of existing heritage buildings. Many of its features are things we now take for granted. Every floor had 400 to 500 power points in the floor, Wilkinson said. It had windows that didn't open, a novelty at that time, and was one of the first buildings to house large computing equipment and banks of speedy lifts. It had a vertical conveyer to transfer papers up and down the building. Music was piped into some floors to calm staff. It included decorative panels, art, and about 6690 sq m of glass mosaic tiles and 4600 sq m of Italian and Australian marble. This telegraphed that customers were in safe hands taking out life insurance with the company. Wilkinson said: 'It really did set the benchmark.' James Bosanquet of the National Trust of Australia, NSW, said the AMP was promoted as a modernist marvel and really changed Sydney. 'Before then, we had modernist buildings, but nothing on this scale.' It may have looked like a 'modern mausoleum on the harbour', he said, but its curved walls allowed it to control the amount of light throughout the day. It was among many changes to transform Circular Quay about that time, ranging from the railway in 1954, the Cahill Expressway in 1958, the Overseas Passenger Terminal (1958), which is now the MCA, and later in 1973, the Opera House. 'An awful lot was happening quickly, and it reflected the feeling that Sydney was coming of age.' Loading Professor Philip Oldfield, the head of the school of built environment at the University of NSW, said it was Sydney's first real skyscraper, 'built with all the mod cons you'd expect for a post-war office – open plan floor plates, curtain wall glazing, and even novel spray-on fire-proofing to the steel frame.' Skyscrapers had been springing up in cities around the world. But in Sydney, Oldfield said, a fear of fire safety in taller buildings and a desire to extend the city outwards rather than upwards, resulted in the 1912 Height of Buildings Act, which limited buildings to about 13 storeys. 'It wasn't until 1957 when the legislation was changed, fuelled by competition with Melbourne, that buildings like the AMP Tower became possible.'
The Age
a day ago
- The Age
Saved from the wrecking ball, AMP building reopens as a glittering star on Circular Quay
There was a frogman in its seawater tank. And the glass facade of the skyscraper was sprinkled with gold dust. Little wonder that the 1962 opening of Australia's then-tallest building, the 117-metre-high AMP 'Sydney Cove' building at Sydney's Circular Quay, would excite the nation and attract a million tourists, including Queen Elizabeth, to its observation deck within a year. Opening the modernist H-shaped office block at 33 Alfred Street, then-prime minister Sir Robert Menzies said it was a 'towering symbol' that 'quickened the imagination'. The city's first real skyscraper, the 26-storey office block by the late architect Graham Thorp, took advantage of a change in legislation to break the city's 150-foot (46-metre) height limit imposed in 1912. That started 'the skyscraper phenomenon' of higher buildings and increased density. Until then, Sydney had been a short and old-fashioned city, and the public feared it would go the way of New York. On Friday morning, Premier Chris Minns and Lord Mayor Clover Moore reopened the 63-year-old building at 33 Alfred Street. Minns said: 'The great thing about this project is that they didn't call in the wrecking balls. They called in some of our best architects and engineers and created an absolutely beautiful building.' The reopening follows a three-year restoration and modernisation by architects Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW) for co-owners Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund, with heritage consultants Urbis. With AMP now housed in the Quay Quarter building, the newly modernised office block is expected to become home to some of Australia's top law firms, including Allens which is expected to take over the floor that was once a public observation deck. As Sydney's first real skyscraper, Minns said 33 Alfred had helped define the city. A symbol of post-war growth and architectural ambition, it married the best of the old with the best of the new. 'What this project shows is we can still do great things in the city.' He was taken with the curve of the roof seen from observation deck: 'When it is stretched again the blue sky on a wonderful Friday in Sydney, it looks like the wing of a Pan Am airplane. They don't make buildings like that any more.' Moore said the AMP building had to go up in height so it could look over the Cahill Expressway, which she described as a continuing blight that blocked views and separated the city from the harbour. By retaining the AMP instead of demolishing it, Moore said the redevelopment had saved tonnes of carbon and reduced emissions. It was also the culmination of the city's award-winning Quay Quarter redevelopment, which resulted in new laneways with restaurants and the restoration and reuse of heritage buildings. Dexus said the building had been transformed into a state-of-the-art office tower spanning about 32,000 square metres. Its re-use of the existing structure minimised landfill waste, extended the lifecycle of the building and was developed to achieve a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating for the base building, and a 6-Star Green Star. Its heritage listing by the state two years ago said the facade was covered with gold dust. Dexus' general manager of development Nicholas Wilkinson said he didn't think it was real. 'I wish it was,' he said. Thorp wrote in the Herald in 1962 that the building's shape would not have been seen elsewhere in the world. A curtain wall spandrel with gold-fused backing was used to give a reflective surface with a constantly changing pattern in sunlight. During the restoration, parts of the original facade – the famous curtain walls – were retained. The rest was updated with a material that Wilkinson said sparkled like the original to honour its heritage but used contemporary techniques. The windows were also changed because the views across one of the world's most famous harbours were 'located somewhere between the hips and the chin of the average person standing up. With some smart design, there is now a good line of sight to the harbour.' 'That's where the magic happens,' he said. Nobody has any record of the original frogmen who cleaned the seawater air-conditioning system that created a steady indoor climate in the building. During the restoration, Wilkinson said divers had cleaned and repaired pipes under the ferry wharves to remove seawater, crustaceans, and other matter. Built in 21 months, it was expected to last 40 years. But now it appears increasingly small in contrast with many other tall buildings, including Sydney's tallest, One Crown at 271 metres high, and others expected to go even higher. Wilkinson said engineers had certified the newly renovated office block for another 50 years, but they expected it would outlast that estimate. He said the building was now setting a precedent for the sensitive renewal and reuse of existing heritage buildings. Many of its features are things we now take for granted. Every floor had 400 to 500 power points in the floor, Wilkinson said. It had windows that didn't open, a novelty at that time, and was one of the first buildings to house large computing equipment and banks of speedy lifts. It had a vertical conveyer to transfer papers up and down the building. Music was piped into some floors to calm staff. It included decorative panels, art, and about 6690 sq m of glass mosaic tiles and 4600 sq m of Italian and Australian marble. This telegraphed that customers were in safe hands taking out life insurance with the company. Wilkinson said: 'It really did set the benchmark.' James Bosanquet of the National Trust of Australia, NSW, said the AMP was promoted as a modernist marvel and really changed Sydney. 'Before then, we had modernist buildings, but nothing on this scale.' It may have looked like a 'modern mausoleum on the harbour', he said, but its curved walls allowed it to control the amount of light throughout the day. It was among many changes to transform Circular Quay about that time, ranging from the railway in 1954, the Cahill Expressway in 1958, the Overseas Passenger Terminal (1958), which is now the MCA, and later in 1973, the Opera House. 'An awful lot was happening quickly, and it reflected the feeling that Sydney was coming of age.' Loading Professor Philip Oldfield, the head of the school of built environment at the University of NSW, said it was Sydney's first real skyscraper, 'built with all the mod cons you'd expect for a post-war office – open plan floor plates, curtain wall glazing, and even novel spray-on fire-proofing to the steel frame.' Skyscrapers had been springing up in cities around the world. But in Sydney, Oldfield said, a fear of fire safety in taller buildings and a desire to extend the city outwards rather than upwards, resulted in the 1912 Height of Buildings Act, which limited buildings to about 13 storeys. 'It wasn't until 1957 when the legislation was changed, fuelled by competition with Melbourne, that buildings like the AMP Tower became possible.'
Courier-Mail
a day ago
- Courier-Mail
Grand character home boasts a ‘five-star resort' glow up
An immaculately renovated art deco home is at the centre of a rare real estate opportunity to purchase two adjoining properties and create an exclusive private estate in sought after Clayfield. For sale by expression of interest, the properties comprise a stunning, three-level residence on a 1259sq m block at 88 Oriel Dr, along with the neighbouring 715sq m lot at 1 Stafford St. Currently the site of a three-bedroom post-war home, the Stafford St lot has development approval for a tennis court and eight-car basement. Owners Greg and Tamra Josephson purchased the Oriel Rd residence back in 2017 after being drawn to its position and potential. 'We were looking for a big family home and this was in very original condition,' Mr Josephson said. 'It was perched on a peak with vistas to the Gateway Bridge and mountains, and the house had character, a solid structure, and was on a big block.' MORE: Motocross mansion named Australia's hottest property Why luxury home dream could be out of reach for millions Bonza bargain: Entire Aussie camp with water park for sale Over a series of stages, the Josephsons transformed the period property into a stately six- bedroom home that rivals a five-star resort. Initially they built in beneath the residence, adding a rumpus area, guest bedroom and office. Attention then turned to cosmetic upgrades of the original house before a major renovation in 2022 that tapped into the talents of architect Ivan Gastaldon and interior design experts Highgate House. 'The brief was to give it a five-star hotel feel,' Mr Josephson said. 'And with a bit of a minor tweak they also came up with the idea of a parents retreat.' Spanning three luxurious levels, the property now boasts six bedrooms, six bathrooms, multiple formal and informal living spaces, an open plan kitchen and dining area, alfresco terraces and a pavilion. Inside, luxury finishes include parquetry French oak flooring, hand-painted wallpaper, Ralph Lauren lighting, Wyer + Craw cabinetry, and imported marble, set against immaculately restored period elements, such as coffered ceilings, and leadlight and sash windows. The interior effortlessly connects to the exterior where covered patios and elegant porches lead to manicured gardens, grassed terraces, and a magnesium pool with spa. The property has served as the Josephson's family home, offering ample space for everyone to retreat to and enjoy together. 'Our three children are all teens and each has their own big bedroom,' Mr Josephson said. 'We love the fact it's six bedroom and there's just so much space, with all these breakout areas that you can enjoy. 'My wife and I can go and sit by our fireplace in the parents retreat and the kids can head to the casual downstairs area on the ground floor.' The acquisition of the block next door was part of the Josephson's long-term vision for the property. 'We planned to integrate a driveway off Oriel Rd and create a huge garage with a tennis court above it,' Mr Josephson said. 'There was going to be a lift from the garage to a garden atrium above and from there you could walk into the house.' Alternatively, he said the new owners could retain the existing property on the Stafford St lot and enjoy rental income or utilise it for extended family. 'That next stage is for someone else to do,' Mr Josephson said. 'We're sad to sell but we're relocating to Noosa where we have a house and business interests. 'But we're proud that we went all out to create a once in a lifetime forever home, and that's what's on offer for someone now.' The property is listed with Matt Lancashire of Ray White New Farm.
