Good morning everyone,

Thanks for joining us today.

I'd like to say an extra special welcome to our team members watching from The Street at our Mascot headquarters.

I want to acknowledge and thank you for the role that you have all played in these results, along with the rest of our employees across our network.

It's great to be able to share the Qantas Group's results for the first half of the financial year, which show we are continuing to deliver for our customers, people and shareholders.

Qantas was again the most on-time major airline in Australia. Customer satisfaction and brand trust are at their strongest levels in three years.

Jetstar continued to offer great value with over half of its domestic customers travelling for under $150.

Frequent Flyers used their points to book more than 2.5 million reward seats.

We're on track to create 8,500 Australian jobs by 2030.

And we delivered another strong financial result, which is critically important as we ramp up our investment in new aircraft.

Today, we announced a 20 per cent increase to the base dividend for shareholders and a share buyback.

As we enter an exciting new era for the Qantas Group, we're making significant improvements for our customers and our people.

Today we've unveiled the biggest changes to frequent flyer status in the program's history. I'll talk in more detail about these changes in a moment.

We have also announced we will launch the first direct flights between Australia and Las Vegas. This seasonal service will cut travel time between Sydney and Las Vegas by up to five hours.

Now, turning to what's driving our financial performance.

The underlying earnings growth we have delivered demonstrates the strength of our integrated portfolio across Qantas, Jetstar and Qantas Loyalty.

What's driving this performance is really clear. Continued strong demand for travel combined with new aircraft that are fundamentally changing how we deliver for our customers and grow our business.

Australians' appetite for travel continues to be incredibly strong.

We're seeing this across leisure and business-purpose travel, particularly in the resources sector and among small and medium-sized businesses.

Internationally, we are seeing it at both ends of the market. Qantas is seeing strong demand for its premium cabins and Jetstar is carrying more people to popular leisure destinations.

New aircraft are enabling us to meet this demand.

The Group has already received around 40 of the 200 plus new aircraft we have on order.

Jetstar is further along with its fleet renewal and its performance for the half shows why we're so confident about the benefits ahead for Qantas.

Around 60 per cent of Jetstar's increase in profitability was driven by its next generation aircraft, through a combination of growth, new network opportunities and the redeployment of existing aircraft onto other routes.

With its new fleet now at scale, they're delivering better fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs, and providing the flexibility to open new routes.

And as Qantas' fleet renewal ramps up and its new aircraft reach scale over the next few years, we expect to see similar benefits.

We've seen an acceleration in deliveries for Qantas with six new aircraft arriving in the half and our first A321XLRs entering service in September.

Our fourth XLR arrived in Australia this week and we have today scheduled the first international route with this aircraft type, from Brisbane to Manila, which shows the long range capability of these aircraft.

A further 30 new Qantas aircraft will arrive over the next 18 months.

In my three decades working here I can't remember this level of aircraft deliveries in such a short space of time.

Our new aircraft are also helping improve our operations and customer satisfaction.

Net Promoter Scores rose across both airlines with Qantas up 5 points and Jetstar up 4 points.

In January, this momentum continued, with Qantas' NPS reaching a three year high.

We've also continued investing in other areas to improve the customer experience:

We launched Qantas Economy Plus, offering more legroom and priority overhead baggage access across our domestic fleet. It's complimentary for our Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members in recognition of their ongoing loyalty and the level of interest from customers purchasing the product has exceeded our expectations.

We opened our refurbished Auckland lounge in December and started major upgrades to our Los Angeles and Sydney Business lounges.

And we're providing more opportunities to travel, having launched 13 new routes across the Group during the half.

None of this would be possible without the dedication and professionalism of our 30,000 team members across the Qantas Group.

I want to say thank you to all of you.

You are the ones delivering these improvements every day for our customers.

Our financial performance means we're on track to provide our non-executive employees with another $1,000 in Qantas shares later this year, allowing them to share in the company's success.

As well as celebrating our employees today, we're also welcoming more to the Group.

We remain on track to create 8,500 jobs in Australia by 2030, which includes an additional 3,500 cabin crew and more than 1,000 pilots.

To support our growing international network we are also re-establishing a cabin crew base in Asia, with a new base in Singapore - our busiest international hub outside Australia.

This will improve our operational resilience and ensure Qantas International's costs remain competitive.

There is one issue that I want to address that's affecting the airline industry.

Despite our strong performance, we've seen an increase in costs that are largely outside our control.

Airport charges and government fees have increased at double the rate of inflation over the past 12 months.

We are offsetting these where possible through transformation and we're working across the industry to minimise the impact and see what can be done to ensure this doesn't impact the ongoing affordability of air travel in this country.

As we look ahead, there's a lot to be excited about.

The improvements we have announced today to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program are among the biggest we have made in its 40-year history, creating more opportunities for members to unlock status.

For the first time, members will be able to roll over unused Status Credits from one year to the next.

They will also be able to earn Status Credits through everyday spending on the ground, not just when they are flying.

And next month we'll launch a significantly enhanced search tool that will make it much easier to find reward seats across Qantas and 30 partner airlines.

These changes reflect what we've heard from our members, and they represent a significant investment in keeping the program competitive and rewarding.

Beyond the Frequent Flyer program, Project Sunrise is progressing well. Test flights will begin shortly, with the first A350 aircraft due to arrive later this year.

As I said at the start, this is an exciting new era for the Qantas Group.

We're seeing the benefits of our fleet renewal flow through to customer experience, operational performance and financial results.

We're investing in our people and our network.

And we're building on the momentum we've created.

By consistently delivering strong earnings growth we can invest in our customers and people while also rewarding shareholders.

I want to thank our 30,000 team members for making this result possible.

I look forward to talking to many more of you on our roadshow over the next few weeks.