Qantas CEO says Australian state border closures affect the country’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak

On Thursday, Qantas Airways Ltd.’s (QAN.AX) Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce stated that Australia’s state border closures would severely affect the country’s recovery from its global travel losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also added that the closures would lead to a significant financial loss by the end of the year.

The largest Australian airline company reported its full-year net loss worth 1.964 billion AUD ($1.41 billion) for twelve months that ended on June 30. According to Qantas Airways, it was one of the largest losses of the company due to impairment charges and restructuring costs amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“At the moment, there are no rules around how borders are going to close and going to open. Nobody has an issue with the international borders being closed — that’s protected Australia. Nobody’s had an issue with the borders to Victoria being closed. But it’s very clear that we don’t have clear guidelines for when the borders will open when they will close. So we have this situation where there are large numbers of states and territories that have zero cases, and they’re not even open to each other,” Qantas Airways’ CEO Alan Joyce said after the release of the company’s annual financial results.