Taylor on Travel

Qantas posted a A$181-million (£91 million) profit for the year to June, putting it among the few full-service carriers to remain in the black despite a decline from a A$1.4-billion (£700 million) profit a year ago.

The carrier suggests "there are signs of an improvement in passenger volumes", but offers no view on future performance.

Its estimate of the cost of the initial swine-flu outbreak - A$45 million - is worth noting as it hints at the scale of the impact we can expect if there is a pandemic this autumn.

Industrial action by engineers cost Qantas a further A$130 million, and introducing the Airbus A380 also came at a price - though not one the carrier will be too bothered about that. It has three A380s in service and three more to come by the end of the year.

What will bother Qantas - on top of the downturn and the oil price - are the planned increases in Air Passenger Duty from the UK.

Having cut capacity over the year by less than 2%, there must be more to come from the Australian carrier in cost savings of A$1.5 billion over the next three years.