Australia’s Qantas Thursday posted a record H1 underlying profit as its strategy of cutting capacity and hiking fares boosted domestic revenue. Qantas booked a 15% rise in H1 underlying profit before tax, its most closely watched measure, to A$976m (US$761.48m) for the six months ending Dec. 31, above the airline’s guidance range. The airline, which controls nearly two-thirds of the domestic market, said overall revenue and other income rose 6 percent to A$8.66b helped by a 5% rise in revenue from its domestic segment. “We’re seeing continued capacity discipline in the domestic market, coupled with a product advantage that’s delivering a significant profit share to the group,” CE Alan Joyce said. The airline said domestic capacity was expected to decrease by about 1% in H2, which could drive ticket prices higher. Qantas has emerged from a three-year turnaround that involved slashing staff numbers and flying its jets more hours each day to boost revenue. The strategy worked, giving Australia’s biggest airline the confidence to proceed with its ambitions to have the world’s longest commercial flights operational by 2022.<br/>
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As the world grapples with a shortage of pilots, Qantas is taking matters into its own hands. The Australian airline is setting up a school to train as many as 500 pilots a year, it said Thursday as it reported record H1 profits. The carrier will initially produce about 100 pilots a year just for Qantas, and other airlines could ultimately pay for training at the facility, CEO Alan Joyce said. The Qantas facility due to open in 2019 will meet just a fraction of the industry’s needs. The Asia-Pacific region alone will require more than 250,000 new pilots by 2036, about 40% of the global total needed, according to Boeing. Qantas will initially invest as much as A$20m in the school, to be based in regional Australia, Joyce said.<br/>
Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker has reaffirmed the carrier's plan to launch a carrier in India, but has been coy on the details. Al Baker spoke briefly about the fleet plans for the proposed carrier. "I will not tell you what types of aeroplanes we will deploy in India, but as you may remember we said that we will launch an airline in India which will have a fleet of at least 100 aircraft," he says without giving further details. Al Baker first raised the prospect of launching a carrier in India last March, which would be jointly owned byQatar Airways and Qatar's state investment arm. The planned venture would not require a local partner, after India changed regulations to allow complete foreign ownership of local carriers. Foreign carriers, however, are still limited to a maximum 49% stake.<br/>
Finnair said it would open a direct, year-round route between Helsinki and Minsk, Belarus as it continues its network expansion. The new twice-weekly Embraer E190 service will launch June 9. Finnair currently cooperates with Belarusian carrier Belavia on the Helsinki-Minsk route and Finnair’s own flights will bring the total number of weekly flights up to five, the Finnish carrier said. “A direct route to Minsk compliments our network well and will serve especially well customers traveling between Belarus and North America,” Finnair CCO Juha Jarvinen said. “Additionally, our new Minsk flights will connect well to Finnair’s Asian and European network.” Finnair has been expanding rapidly and in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2017, passenger numbers rose 9.6% to 11.9m, the airline said as it presented its full-year results on Feb. 16. It increased capacity 8.9% in 2017, but traffic growth was higher at 13.6%, giving it an average load factor up 3.5 points at 83.3%.<br/>