Travel is still getting first dibs in household budgets, according to Qantas. Hudson said customers are choosing holidays over other nice-to-haves, with seats filling across Jetstar and in Qantas's business and first class. As she put it: "Consumer behavior is 'coalescing around 'I'm going to take my holiday every year, and that's going to be at the top of my priorities,' and so, even with the backdrops of interest rates and higher energy prices, we haven't seen that change.'"
Hudson was in New York to detail Qantas's nonstop Sydney to New York service under Project Sunrise, slated to begin in mid-2028. The airline plans to use a specially outfitted Airbus SE A350 for an approximately 18 hour crossing of the Pacific, which Qantas says should cut about three hours versus current options. The carrier anticipates solid demand for the direct route even with higher fuel bills, and Hudson said the aircraft were ordered with a roughly 20 year investment horizon. She added that point to point flights should appeal to travelers who are relatively "price inelastic."
Hudson said a surge in jet fuel prices tied to the war in Iran meant Qantas logged its weakest annual profit in four years and scrapped a planned share buyback. Even so, she said the airline still expects to distribute dividends to shareholders. "We actually want that dividend to be a consistent part of our distribution framework," Hudson said. She also cautioned that "the longer the kind of uncertainty goes on, obviously that's going to be something that is weighed up regularly."
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Qantas is phasing out its older Airbus SE A330s and will start retiring its four engine, double decker A380s beginning in 2028. Hudson said the airline is weighing Airbus SE A350-1000s and Boeing Co. 787-9s as replacement options and could divide the purchase across both types.
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