Well, good morning and welcome to those of you participating online to the 2021 Qantas Annual General Meeting, which due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and the associated physical gathering and travel restrictions is being held again virtually. I'm your chairman, Richard Goyder, and I'm again chairing our AGM from Western Australia where its borders have been closed for some time. Hopefully, we'll get a sensible roadmap out of that in Western Australia later today. The AGM is an important event for Qantas and one that the board looks forward to each year. I thank you on behalf of the board for tuning in wherever you may be, and hope that you remain safe. Indeed, it's our genuine hope that we'll be doing this in person next year.
On behalf of the board, and in the spirit of reconciliation, the Qantas Group acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia, and we pay our respects to their elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining the meeting virtually today. I wish to acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land I'm chairing from here in Perth. This meeting is being held by video and teleconferencing technologies. Shareholders have the opportunity to participate live by voting and submitting questions. Questions will again be able to be submitted via the virtual meeting platform and in addition this year via telephone.
Shareholders who wish to ask a question via telephone are asked to follow the instructions for phone participation contained in the virtual meeting online guide, which was lodged with the ASX along with the notice of meeting and made available on our investor website. To ask a question online, shareholders should click the Ask a Question box on your screen, type your question, and click Submit. Please note that this function has a limit of 1000 characters. Shareholders who wish to ask questions online are encouraged to start sending in questions now. We will then address these as we get to the relevant item of business. To ask a question by phone, shareholders who have obtained their unique PIN and dialed into the meeting should press star one on their keypad to indicate that you want to ask a question.
A phone operator will ask whether your question relates to an item of business or general business and will note your question and any additional questions. If you no longer wish to ask your question at any time, you can indicate this by pressing star two on your keypad. When the time comes during the meeting for questions, the phone operator will introduce you to the meeting. Your line will be unmuted, and you can then start speaking to ask your question. Your line will be muted once you've asked your question. If you wish to ask a subsequent question, please press star one again to rejoin the queue. If you've also joined the meeting online, we ask that you mute your laptop, tablet, or mobile device while you ask your question. We'll try to ensure that all topics of interest are addressed in our responses to shareholder questions.
Questions submitted online will be moderated and may be amalgamated if there are multiple questions on the same topic. If we experience any significant technical issues today, we may take a short recess or adjourn the meeting until 3:00 P.M. Sydney time today. If this occurs, I will advise you accordingly to the extent possible, and an ASX announcement will be made. In the event that I only encounter any technical issues here from Perth, I've asked Barbara Ward to take the chair from our Mascot head office in Sydney. Before we start, let me introduce your directors, who along with myself, are currently spread across Australia and overseas due to the current travel restrictions.
Appropriately distanced at our Mascot head office in Sydney from left to right on screen, we have Todd Sampson, Barbara Ward, Chairman of the Audit Committee, our Chief Executive Officer, Alan Joyce, our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Andrew Finch, Paul Rayner, who's Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, Belinda Hutchinson. On a conference line and joining us via webcast, we have Maxine Brenner, Jacqueline Hey, Michael L'Estrange, and Antony Tyler, Chairman of the Safety, Health, Environment, and Security Committee. We'll hear briefly from Belinda, Tony, and Todd later in the meeting as they seek re-election to the board. Also present on the call is Andrew Yates and Kweebah Tooley, the senior KPMG audit partners who are available to answer any questions specific to the conduct of the audit. I'm pleased to confirm that a quorum is present, and I formally declare the 2021 Annual General Meeting open.
Before Alan provides an update on the company's activities, I'd like to make a few comments. As you all know, the group has faced another very difficult year due to COVID. International borders were closed for all of the financial year 2021, and there were only about 30 days where we didn't face some kind of domestic travel restriction. That meant total passenger numbers were down by over 70% compared with pre-COVID. The financial impact of this has been clear. In August, we posted a statutory loss before tax of AUD 2.35 billion for the 2021 financial year, which follows a loss of AUD 2.7 billion the year before. The news has been much better in the last few weeks as lockdowns end, borders start opening, and our people prepare to come back to work.
It's fair to say that the trading conditions for the first half of this financial year have been terrible. The exceptions which have performed well throughout the crisis have been freight, loyalty, and our flying for the resources sectors in WA and Queensland. In total, it's likely COVID will have cost us more than AUD 20 billion in revenue by the end of this calendar year. It's a staggering number, and it's remarkable that the business has managed to deal with this as well as it has. We still have significant state border and quarantine impediments to navigate through so that Australians can travel, be reunited with family and friends, and rebuild many of the business opportunities that have been lost through the pandemic. Today it feels like we're coming to the end of a long and difficult road, thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout.
Alan will talk more about this and the restart of flying in a moment. What's key for shareholders to know is that Qantas is a structurally different company coming out of the pandemic than we were going in, and that's important because it means we're well-placed to recover faster. We're on track to deliver AUD 1 billion of transformation by financial year 2023, with AUD 850 million realized by the end of this financial year. These are annual savings that flow straight to our bottom line and are a foundation for our recovery, as well as building long-term shareholder value. We'll provide a more detailed market update in December when we have the benefit of a few more weeks of trading at higher levels of activity. Broadly, though, I can say we're confident in our levels of liquidity, even more so with forward bookings flowing through.
We're confident that we'll reach our net debt target before the end of this financial year, and we're confident in our hedging position as flying ramps up in the second half. Importantly, for shareholders, that confidence is reflected by the market and the fact that we've been trading at a 10-year high market capitalization even before most of our planes are back in the sky. As we move out of crisis mode, we can spend more time looking ahead. A key priority is sustainability and accelerating our emissions reduction. In 2019, the Qantas Group was only the second airline in the world to commit to net zero emissions target by 2050. The pandemic slowed the whole industry's progress in the same way it artificially lowered our emissions. There are four pillars that support our net zero target.
Working at pace with governments and other businesses to create a sustainable aviation fuel industry in this country, knowing we'd be its biggest single customer. This relies on creating biofuels from crops or waste materials that can power our existing fleet and emit 80% less emissions. Offsetting emissions by investing in high-quality projects that range from solar farms to revegetation projects led by traditional owners. Ongoing work to reduce fuel burn, including through smarter flight planning and reducing waste to landfill, and embracing new low-emission technology as it becomes available. On this last point, electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft are decades away from being a practical alternative, especially given the distances we face in Australia. That's a key reason why sustainable aviation fuels will be so important, so are more efficient aircraft that offer a step change in emissions.
With our long-haul fleet, we've already made big strides in the past year by retiring our 747s and introducing more fuel-efficient 787s. We're now looking at renewal of our domestic fleet and have launched Project Winton. It's named after our birthplace, the town in outback Queensland, because this is a foundational decision for Qantas Domestic. We're looking at an order of over 100 aircraft delivered over 10 years from the end of 2023 onwards. Discussions with Boeing, Airbus and Embraer are well advanced, and we expect to decide on preferred aircraft by the end of this calendar year. These next-generation aircraft will cut emissions by up to 15%. Their range and economics mean we can shape our network to offer more direct routes between cities and towns, which is at the absolute core of what the national carrier does.
Projects like Winton and its long-haul equivalent, Project Sunrise, are important for our customers, and they're important for shareholders because they are vehicles for earnings growth. They're also very important for our people because they bring opportunity, and that's something we're focused on getting back to. The board and senior management are acutely aware of how difficult the past 18 months have been on thousands of employees across Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar. Fortunately, we see no further need for large-scale job cuts. In fact, we expect to be recruiting again in operational areas as we scale up for a return to flying. Those who have been working throughout the pandemic have done so under extremely challenging conditions, whether it's been crew on repatriation missions or corporate employees working on ever-changing schedules or recovery programs.
Indeed, some of our long-haul pilots have spent more than 200 days in quarantine since international borders closed. We know there are still hard yards ahead. That is why flagged in our annual report, the board is looking at a reward and retention bonus for all employees across the group. This is important not just because of the efforts they have put in, but because of the sacrifices they continue to make through a two-year wage freeze and cancellation of annual bonuses for what is likely to be 3 years in a row. We'll have more to say about this at our half-year results in February. I'd like to specifically acknowledge the senior management team led by Alan Joyce. It was not a foregone conclusion that Qantas would survive this pandemic.
Had action not been taken very quickly and had the recovery program not been put in place, the conversation here today could have been very different. The fact the group has come through as well as it has is a huge credit to them. When we announced our recovery program, Alan confirmed he would stay on as CEO for at least another three years, so through to late 2023 and possibly beyond. The board is comfortable that we're well-placed for renewal when that time comes, particularly with the talent and experience we have on our group management committee. Can I acknowledge my board colleagues? All companies experience periods of crisis, but the pandemic has meant Qantas and aviation has been in one for almost two years. The dedication and commitment of your board throughout all this has been superb, and I thank them sincerely.
Two of our longest-serving directors will retire at the end of this meeting. Barbara Ward and Paul Rayner both joined the board in 2008 and probably thought they'd already seen Qantas through its biggest challenges since privatization. Their guidance through this latest crisis has been invaluable, as has their service for the past 13 years. They leave with our deep gratitude. Just as we made reductions across our workforce, those retirements take the number of directors from 10 to 8. This AGM marks an important turning point for our company. Our international flying is back. Our domestic flying is ramping up. More Australians can go home or go on a long-awaited overseas trip. Families and friends can reunite, and we're able to invite our people back to work by early December.
The fact we're able to scale back up is no small part thanks to the federal government support of the sector as a whole through programs that made sure thousands of people were able to stay connected to an industry that relies so heavily on skills built over many years. As shareholders, your support on the journey to get to this point has also been tremendous and greatly appreciated. We know you join us in celebrating the national carrier and the only major airline that is truly Australian getting back in the sky. I'd now like to invite Alan to give an update on the recovery.
Thanks Richard. Can I, first of all, acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet here in Sydney in Mascot? That's the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging. As we reflect on the past year, a key theme for the group has been adapting to the incredible level of change. The most obvious has been dealing with the rolling waves of travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. Domestically, we've had aircraft take off to capital cities that had closed the borders by the time the aircraft had arrived. This would have been unthinkable not so long ago. In fact, in the last year, we've had 408 versions of our Easy Border Reckoner to explain the changes to the borders, nearly one every other day.
We've also launched more new routes than on any other time in our history to make the most of travel between places that were open. In fact, we're nearly up to 50 new routes, and we've announced 2 new routes today from Adelaide to Newcastle and Brisbane to Wagga Wagga. It's fantastic that we've been able to adapt and add those new routes very fast. That ability to adapt quickly has meant that 95% of the time we flew last financial year, we generated cash. As you know, the focus on the business was to generate cash and to get as many people back to work as possible. With so many things turned upside down, we had to look at every aspect of business from top to bottom.
Our recent sale of surplus land at Mascot, which bundled up 14 hectares of the 17 that we owned, which had surged in value during this pandemic, is a good example of that. We also made a lot of difficult structural decisions, including the outsourcing of the remaining ground handling functions at Qantas and Jetstar. This will generate crucial savings and is crucial to the recovery of the group. This is particularly important as new competition emerges in a very competitive market. We also doubled down on the things that worked well. Last month, we announced the early renewal of our cornerstone agreement with Emirates, taking us through to at least 2028, with an option to go to 2033, pending regulatory approval.
Our freight business has boomed during COVID, and while some of that spike is temporary, it has almost certainly accelerated the permanent expansion of e-commerce in this country. That's why we're working with key partners like Australia Post on how we respond to this structural change, and that's why we have our third A321 freighter aircraft arriving by the end of this calendar year to help meet what we will believe is going to be significant demand over Christmas. These decisions and many others are about making the Qantas Group fit for the future, and to make sure that we deliver for our customers, our people, and our shareholders in a post-COVID world. I'm also glad to say that the reopening of that world is approaching quickly. Early this year, when we announced our plans to restart international flights in December, it seemed too optimistic to some.
Because Australians have come out in droves to be vaccinated, it's actually happening faster than any of us expected. Flights from Sydney to London and to Los Angeles started this week. With the leadership of the New South Wales government to remove quarantine for fully vaccinated passengers means we're able to accelerate the return of routes that we didn't think would be viable until well into next year, places like Johannesburg, Bangkok, and hopefully Bali. Domestically, the crucial Melbourne-Sydney route has started to ramp up, and with the announcements from both premiers in the last 24 hours, we think that will even further accelerate this. Most states have outlined their plans to open their borders before Christmas, one of the busiest travel times of the year.
As Richard said earlier, we're expecting announcement on their plans from Western Australia today, which is the last state to make a full commitment to open its borders. Australia is on track to have one of the highest vaccine rates of any country in the world, and that gives us a lot of reassurance that we can open safely and importantly stay open. There will still be challenges, but we are investing in the restart because we have every confidence that there is only one way, and that is forward. One of those challenges is the patchwork of conditions that now apply nationwide. Every time borders closed over the last 18 months, different states had different rules. Unfortunately, we are seeing the same thing happening as we reopen. That is frustrating for vaccinated passengers who would reasonably expect that they can move freely and easily.
Hopefully, these conditions, particularly the PCR testing at every turn, is dispensed with as Australia becomes more confident of living with COVID. Surely that's something we've all earned. As Richard said, we will be providing a trading update to the market in December, but let me share a few insights. In short, travel demand and confidence levels are high. Qantas has taken close to half a million Domestic bookings in the last 2 weeks, which compares to 20,000 bookings in a fortnight in August. That's a 25-fold increase in demand in the last few months. Bookings to South Australia increased more than 6-fold since the Premier there announced the borders are going to reopen. Bookings to Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Cairns increased 10-fold. It's not just confined to domestic.
Jetstar's recent international sale of 75,000 seats from fares starting at just over AUD 100 sold out in 72 hours. Demand on offer seats to Qantas London and Sydney service has been extremely strong, with Aussies coming home in time for Christmas and more flights added as a result. In fact, we've added nearly 20 flights before the Christmas period to meet that demand. Throughout the pandemic, our frequent flyers have been stockpiling their points, which they've earned on the ground with partners like Woolworths and the banks. In a very positive sign of member engagement, they've come out in force as we've added extra flights. In October, Qantas Loyalty had its largest, biggest day for flight redemptions, with more than 500 million points spent on 15,000 domestic and international seats in just 24 hours.
Some very clever passenger actually booked 38 flights in that period of time. Obviously, was very keen to travel post-COVID. Our return to scale is good news for all customers because it also means that we can reopen lounges and bring more aircraft back into service, including our flagship A380 aircraft. We have an update on that because the first aircraft will arrive from Dresden on Tuesday afternoon, earlier than we had originally expected, and will be ready for flying before Christmas for training and as a spare aircraft during the important Christmas and January peak. In fact, we are accelerating the A380s that were due to deliver during 2022 with the plan to start Sydney-L.A. in April with two aircraft. We're working very hard on getting three additional aircraft in by July 2022, so we can start Sydney to London with the A380.
That's given our confidence in demand that's there. A sixth aircraft will arrive in before the end of 2022. That shows the confidence that we have of getting our flagship aircraft back in the air. The ongoing support and understanding of our customers throughout this pandemic has been tremendous, and we look forward to being able to repay that as they come back to flying. The return to flying is obviously great news for our people too, who have endured a very difficult period. As we announced recently, all of our onshore employees will be able to return to work by December. Combined with operational and corporate employees already working, all 22,000 employees are expected to be back working, which wasn't expected to happen until the middle of 2022. This is fantastic, particularly for those who have been stood down since the start of the pandemic.
For those people, some of them thought it could have been another year before they were flying again. Finally, let us return to flying is also great news for our shareholders. You have continually showed tremendous patience and confidence during the crisis, and we thank you for it. There aren't many companies that have been hit by the pandemic as hard as Qantas. As Richard said, over AUD 20 billion in revenue loss probably by the end of this calendar year. In years to come, we look back at this very difficult but very significant part of our long history. Something we endured but then recovered from, and that ultimately made the national carrier better and more resilient. That means we have a lot to look forward to beyond the simple pleasures of flying again.
Renewing our domestic fleet with Project Winton, finally solving the tyranny of distance with Project Sunrise, and more non-stop flights internationally and domestically. Using technology to make meaningful inroads to cutting emissions. Certainly, a lot to look forward to. Thank you and I'll pass back to Richard.
Thank you Alan. Now we'll turn to the formal business of the meeting, and I'll first outline the procedural matters for the meeting. As this is a meeting of Qantas shareholders, only shareholders, their appointed proxies or authorized representatives are entitled to vote or ask questions. The notice of meeting dated 17th September 2021 was circulated to members, and I will take the notice of meeting as being read. Following consideration of the reports, I will turn to general questions. As advised, shareholders are able to ask questions via the online platform by clicking the Ask a question box on your screen, typing your question, and clicking Submit. In order to allow as many shareholders as possible to participate, please keep your questions concise and at a limit of 2 per shareholder.
Questions that are relevant to the business of the meeting will be read aloud to me by a Qantas staff member, and we may amalgamate questions if there are multiple questions on the same topic. Again, please note this function has a character limit of 1000. We will save answering questions specific to the resolutions until the relevant time. Shareholders who have obtained their unique PIN and dialed into the meeting will also be able to ask a question via telephone by pressing star one on their keypad, and a phone operator will assist you in being able to ask your question. In order to allow as many shareholders as possible to participate by telephone, I'll ask that you limit your question, telephone questions to one at a time. We'll come back to you time permitting when other shareholders have had their opportunity to ask their question.
If you've also joined the meeting online, we ask that you mute your laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile device while you ask your question. Each time each resolution is considered, I'll invite any questions specific to that resolution, beginning with any pre-submitted questions, followed by online questions, and then any questions via the telephone. If a shareholder no longer wishes to ask their question via telephone, at any time they are to press star two on their keypad. I'll now summarize the voting procedures. All items of business will be voted on by poll, which I now declare open. If you did not cast your vote prior to the meeting and have not appointed a proxy to attend on your behalf, you may cast a live vote using the online platform. Please note that you cannot vote via telephone.
Using the online platform, please click Get a voting card and follow the prompts. You may cast your live vote at any time during the meeting. Live voting on the platform will close five minutes after the close of the meeting, and I'll give you a warning when this five-minute period starts. At the conclusion of the AGM, you'll see a red bar appear at the top of the online platform with a countdown timer of the remaining time to cast your vote. I confirm that where undirected proxies have been given to me as chairman, I will vote in favor of the resolution to the extent permitted. During the meeting, we will display the proxy votes received prior to the meeting on each resolution. Poll vote results will be lodged with the ASX as soon as they are available following the conclusion of the meeting.
If you experience any difficulty using the online platform, the help line is displayed at the top of the page. Link Market Services is the returning officer for the meeting. Before turning to the first item of business, I'd like to address three issues that were common themes in the questions we received in advance from shareholders. The first relates to the decision by Qantas to outsource its ground handling function in the 10 remaining ports where it wasn't already managed by specialist ground handlers. We briefed shareholders on this issue at last year's AGM, and since then, the TWU has challenged the legality of the decision in the Federal Court.
While the court accepted that Qantas made the decision to outsource in response to the unprecedented impact of the COVID crisis, it found we had not disproven the TWU's claim that preventing future industrial action was also a factor which would contravene the Fair Work Act. Qantas fundamentally disagrees with this judgment, and we have lodged an appeal which will be heard early next year. The airline was motivated only by lawful commercial reasons, including saving AUD 100 million a year in the middle of a global pandemic. We also avoided spending AUD 80 million on equipment over the next five years, and we can now better match resources with fluctuating levels of demand.
These specialized ground handling companies provide services to scores of airlines at the same airports, giving them economies of scale to do this work for around 40% less than it was done in-house. Qantas was actively recruiting into our ground handling business and growing the number of people employed to do this work in-house until just prior to the outbreak. Any operational risk from possible industrial action in the future pales in comparison with the impact of COVID, which will have cost us in excess of AUD 20 billion in revenue by the end of this year. Since this decision was made almost 12 months ago, we've had just a handful of Qantas international flights get off the ground, and they were in the last few days, and long lockdowns in Melbourne and Sydney, which have decimated domestic travel across Australia.
This shows why it was so important that we unlocked the structural savings from outsourcing this work. There is also a separate court process looking at the potential remedies for former employees affected by the outsourcing decision should the appeal be unsuccessful. While the TWU is pushing for reinstatement, we no longer have a ground handling business to reinstate former employees to, nor the equipment to do the work as this has been sold. Should the appeal be unsuccessful, we believe compensation is a more likely outcome. We expect compensation ordered by the court would take into account the fact that the affected workers were all given generous redundancy packages and many have subsequently found other employment
The impact that this decision had on 2,000 former Qantas employees and their families is not lost on management or the board, nor is the impact on the other 7,400 people who have lost their jobs across the group as a result of the pandemic. Aviation workers right around the world have been impacted as a result of this, and it's the unfortunate reality of what COVID-19 has done to the industry. The second issue that has come up in pre-submitted questions is government support for the group during the pandemic. Can I start by reiterating our appreciation of the support the federal government has provided to Qantas, other airlines in the broader tourism sector? The group has previously disclosed that in the financial year 2020 and 2021, we received AUD 1.6 billion in funds from the government.
About half of those, these funds went to our people, mostly as income support while they were stood down. The rest of the funds were in exchange for services we provided to the government. Since the start of the pandemic, we've operated more than 450 flights repatriating Australians and maintaining critical links to the Pacific and Timor-Leste on behalf of the Australian government, bringing back tens of thousands of Australians home. Repatriation flights have covered routes which are not usually on our network, including Delhi, Islamabad, Istanbul, and Frankfurt. We've also operated around 2,400 freight services, ensuring our exporters had access to key international markets across Asia and the U.S. Pre-COVID, these fee for service activities that we would routinely do for the government or any other large customer would not have been counted as government support.
The income support that our employees received from the government, including JobKeeper, has been a lifeline to the many thousands who were stood down without work for long periods. It also ensured our workforce has maintained their skills and proficiency so we could quickly respond to each international borders opening early. The notion that Qantas itself has been directly enriched by the COVID-19 programs and the support from government has all gone straight to the bottom line is just wrong. While government support has been important, the group has taken its own actions to respond to the crisis. These included raising more than AUD 5 billion in equity and debt, reducing annual spend by AUD 1 billion by the end of FY 2023, and selling land in Mascot for more than AUD 800 million.
To put this in perspective, we've raised roughly three times more money from the market through debt and equity than we've received in all forms of government support. It's not to diminish the importance or our appreciation, but to put it in context. It's also worth pointing out our recent decision to invite all our onshore employees back to work from next month, which we've done despite there still being uncertainty about when some restrictions will lift and normal travel will resume. The third issue I'd like to address upfront is the group's position on vaccinations. The group has been a big supporter of Australia's vaccine rollout, which after a few early hiccups, has been a huge success, with the country on track to have one of the highest vaccination rates anywhere in the world.
I'm proud to say that Qantas has shown leadership through the vaccination rollout. We were the first ASX-listed company to announce that we would require all employees to be vaccinated. The first airline in the world to indicate that vaccines would be a requirement for international travel. The first large Australian business to reward customers for getting the jab with over half a million people signing up already. It's the type of safety leadership that Australians expect from Qantas. Since Qantas announced employees would need to be fully vaccinated, many other airlines, businesses, and government agencies have introduced similar vaccination requirements for their employees. Government mandates have also been introduced for aviation workers in many states and territories.
While the data shows the risk of transmitting COVID on an aircraft is low, one crew member can fly into multiple cities and come into contact with thousands of people in a single day. We are expecting that a small number of team members have made the decision not to get vaccinated, which is their right, but we have a duty of care to provide the safest possible environment for employees and customers. Without the success of Australia's vaccination program, we would not have resumed international flights this week. Melbourne City would not be out of lockdown, we would not have had so many of our aircraft and people back to work, and we would not be as optimistic as we are about the group's recovery from COVID.
Now turning to the first item of business for this meeting, which is to consider the reports contained in the 2021 annual report. The annual report was made available to shareholders in September. It contains the financial report of Qantas Airways Limited and its controlled entities, the directors' report, and the independent auditors' report. The financial report has been approved by the directors and audited by Qantas's independent auditor, KPMG. As required by Section 317 of the Corporations Act, I now lay before this meeting the financial report, the directors' report, and the independent auditors' report for the financial year ended 30th June 2021. Shortly, I'll take any general questions or comments about the report or any other general matters. As stated earlier, our auditors from KPMG are available to answer any specific questions you may have about the conduct of the audit.
I'll now take questions from shareholders on the financial statements, the Qantas Group's performance over the last year, the directors' report or auditors' report. Amanda, can we please have the first question?
Thanks Chairman. Shareholder Talitha Tabrica has asked when dividends will be paid.
Well, thanks Talitha. That's a great question. The board and management are very mindful of providing long-term returns to shareholders, including obviously through dividends. Pre-COVID, we made significant returns to shareholders, something like AUD 4.3 billion in the period between 2015 and 2019. We last paid a dividend in September 2019, which was AUD 0.13 per share. As you will appreciate, due to the pandemic and our focus retaining cash to keep the business going, we've been unable to pay dividends to shareholders since then. Decisions on future dividends will be made in line with the group's financial framework, and this means that dividends will be considered once the balance sheet is repaired.
The focus of our recovery program is to put the group in a strong financial position post-COVID, make sure we get back to paying dividends as soon as possible. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, and Alan mentioned as well, you know, the recovery program is progressing well and we have a degree of confidence as we look forward.
Chairman the next question is from shareholder Mark Lindsay Buchanan. Do members of the board agree that human-induced climate change poses an existential risk to humanity and that urgent decarbonization of the economy is essential if Earth has any chance of remaining habitable to our species?
Well, thanks Mark for that question. We've been talking to shareholders for many years about the risk that human-induced climate change poses and how we're ensuring the group is well-positioned to respond. I covered some of this in my opening remarks, but it's, I think, important enough to repeat some of the things I said earlier. Taking action to reduce our impact on the environment remains a big focus for Qantas despite the challenging operating environment we have at the moment. We've recently appointed our first chief sustainability officer and are investing in further capabilities in that, in our sustainability team. Our long-term goal remains net zero carbon emissions by 2050, just the second airline in the world to make that commitment.
We're currently developing a pathway towards that target, including interim 2030 targets. You can expect a significant update on our efforts to address emissions early next year. In summary, there are four main areas we're focused on, and I'll repeat them from earlier. First, we're actively exploring opportunities with our partner bp for the development of sustainable aviation fuel production in Australia, and we've committed AUD 50 million to help with the development of a local industry. Secondly, we're investing in next generation aircraft, which reduce fuel burn. Third, we're offsetting our emissions with 11% of our customers already offsetting their flight emissions through our own program. Lastly, we've got significant ongoing work to reduce fuel burn, including through smarter flight planning, reducing waste to landfill, and through changes like our recent switch away from plastic cutlery.
Chairman the next question is from shareholder Brett Leach. It has been previously announced by Alan Joyce that all Qantas staff will no longer be stood down when international borders open. However, that story has been manipulated and changed on numerous occasions. When will all staff be stood up again, and what will be the trigger for this?
Well, thanks Brett. I might get our CEO, Alan Joyce, to respond to that question.
Thanks Richard and thanks for the question, Brett. Our position on this has always been clear. We said we'll get our people back to work when there's work for them to do. Now, unfortunately, what has happened is that borders have closed down, sometimes unexpectedly, and we've gone backwards. When we got to July of this year, we thought and had published, and we're planning to get to 100% just about our pre-COVID domestic schedules. Then there was the outbreak in Sydney and Victoria, which locked the borders down. Now, unfortunately, we've had the 6,000 people associated with the international business stood down, and we had to make another 5,000 associated with the impacts of the domestic operation. We had to stand 5,000 of them down.
Now, we have always been consistent in saying that once the borders opened up and we could get aircraft back in the air, and we've said we didn't need to make profits, we just needed to generate cash. That's very important because that's a priority to get our people back to work. When the Premier of New South Wales said that there was gonna be a requirement for zero quarantine here, we had an event a couple of weeks ago with the Prime Minister and the Premier and announced that all 11,000 employees that have been stood down will be given the opportunity in early December to start flying for the group again, because we now have certainty on the borders.
We believe we can get back to nearly 100% of our pre-COVID domestic schedule in December in January. We believe that we can get the international operations progressively ramped up and bring it forward. I did earlier mention the fact that we're bringing forward the A380s. That gave us confidence to do that. It's great news for our people and for the next some time, we'll be operating on a cash basis to ensure we get all our people back to work and we generate cash for the group, and that is our focus and our prime concern. Thank you Brett.
Chairman the next question is from shareholder Oliver Kernowski. COVID-19 has shown the aviation industry lacks resilience. What planning is the board and CEO doing to future-proof the organization against potential threats? Future-proofing does not mean laying off workers to balance the books.
Thanks Oliver. Again, I think I'll get Alan to respond. Obviously, aviation is a very challenging industry from time to time as Barbara Ward, Paul Rayner will attest to over their 13 years on the board and Alan can as his time as CEO. Alan, I'll get you to respond to the sort of things we were looking at as we were focused on as we came into the pandemic and the things we're focused on as we exit.
Thanks Richard, and thanks Oliver for the question. Going into the pandemic, we were very focused on making sure that Qantas was as strong as it could be because we knew that the aviation industry is always subject to what my predecessor called sudden shock syndrome, where something could happen around the world and has an impact on us. Going into it, we were one of a handful of investment-grade airlines. We had a strong balance sheet. We had diversity with Qantas Loyalty, Freight, Jetstar, and Qantas mainline. We had a resource sector where we were a big player in it, which we knew helped create that diversity. When the pandemic happened, we acted fast. We raised debt faster than I think any other airline out there.
We had a lot of unencumbered assets, which allowed us also to get additional debt. We went to our shareholders, and because of the strength of the group, we were able to raise equity. We did have to make the tough decisions of having to make redundancies and restructure. That's because we knew there would be a period of time when the company had to recover and pay back that debt and get itself in a position to be resilient in the future. I think there's not many companies in the world, let alone in Australia, that could lose so much in revenue, AUD 20 billion, and not only survive it, but come through with an active plan to get back in the air, to grow again, to invest in Project Winton, to invest in Project Sunrise.
I think it's to the credit of the resilience of Qantas in particular that we're in this relatively strong position compared to every other airline in the world and compared to what other companies in Australia would have experienced with such a massive hit.
Chairman, shareholder Pauline Long has asked if it's possible to upgrade Cairns Airport with bag drop facilities as opposed to staff-manned counters. With domestic flights starting again, there will be a lot of congestion and long queues again at check-in, which I think can be avoided.
Thanks Pauline. Again, I'll get Alan to respond. Again, I think I'd preface Alan's response by saying, you know, there will be some lumpiness in travel, particularly probably international for a while, but bear with us as we and airports and government get our act together. On your specific question, I'll get Alan to answer.
Thanks Pauline. Yeah, can I agree with Richard? We're going to see this being a bit bumpy over the next few weeks and months as we reactivate everything, and every airline in the world that's gone through reactivation has experienced something like that. What's one of the big changes through the pandemic is people are using technology a lot more, and we could see that in people using online and the app to check in. That's increased by 50%. We, during the pandemic, have been investing very heavily in the Qantas and the Jetstar app to make that easier for people to do. I would encourage people, some people obviously haven't used it in a while, to get the app, making sure they're using it. They'll find it's a lot more convenient way to check in and go through the airport facilities.
There's a lot more functionality that's being built in. In relation to Cairns, in particular, it's a common user facility, so it's very different from the airports like Melbourne and Sydney, where we've actually had Qantas dedicated terminals where we've been able to put in our own technology and own backdrop. We continue to work with the airport and see can we make those facilities easier to use the technology Qantas has established elsewhere. That would be subject to a business case. Of course, since it is a common user facility, it would be subject to other airlines agreeing to it too.
Chairman, shareholder KG Thomas has asked if there is any intention to create a third tier in the Points Club for high point earners with increased benefits to encourage further use of credit cards attached to Qantas.
Okay. I thank KG Thomas for the question, Alan.
Yeah, Thomas thanks for the question. It's a great question because amazingly, two-thirds of our customers earn their points on the ground, which shows you how big the program is across Australia. I think the amazing stat I always love is that 35% of all credit card expenditure in Australia is on a Qantas earning credit card. We felt that it was important to recognize the people that were earning points predominantly on the ground and not in the air, and that's why the Points Club was created. It was actually created at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and we made enhancements on it this year to recognize those people and making sure they're recognized in the air for being valuable customers to the group and valuable members of the loyalty program.
In fact, most of the GMC here doesn't earn points in the air. We don't get points earned by flying, as you could expect, and we're all very active members. I earn my points on like Qantas credit card, through shopping at Woolworths and through bp. So I'm a beneficiary. I have to declare an interest, Chairman, I'm a beneficiary of the Points Club. So we don't have any plans to introduce a third tier, but the Points Club is a great addition. If you haven't focused in on the benefits of it, please do, 'cause you'll see, I think it was something fantastic that we added during the pandemic.
Chairman, the next few questions come from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Media coverage of international travel seems to be a mixed bag. Some are saying that planes are full and prices are high, while others are saying there is plenty of room and prices are low. What's the real situation?
Yeah, thanks Amanda. Can I acknowledge the Australian Shareholders' Association and Allan Golden and thank them for their interest and also for engaging with us on matters that are important to their members. Alan, do you wanna talk about what we're seeing on international at the moment and respond to the ASA's question?
Yeah, Richard. What we're going to see, as we said, it's going to be patchy a bit as we start everything up again. What we did see when we started London and L.A. is really big demand from mainly Australians coming back into the country at Christmas. If actually you're going in the other direction, you'll find that aircraft are relatively empty. We've always said we just need to generate positive cash from these, and because we have very full flights coming into Australia, we can do that. If you want to go in the other direction, there is some very attractive airfares out there. We've been selling around the AUD 2000 mark, return on the Qantas long-haul airfares like that, which is very similar to what it was, pre the pandemic.
I mentioned earlier that we've seen huge demand on the Jetstar flights, and those flights start from just over AUD 100, thereabout, and we sold 75,000 tickets. So there is huge demand on those. A lot of those are outbound. Interestingly, we've also seen flights to India being our fastest-selling flights since we've launched that, and they are mainly people going back into India before Christmas, and it's lighter coming back into Australia. Similarly on Joburg, something very similar in the new year. You will find attractive airfares out there. As you'd expect, over peak periods like Christmas, the airfares always get higher. Qantas is not aiming to make profits out of this period of time.
We're just aiming to get aircraft back in the air and to generate cash, and we'll try and get as much capacity in the air as fast as we can in order to achieve that.
Chairman, this question is also from the Australian Shareholders' Association. All Qantas staff have to be vaccinated. All international passengers have to be vaccinated. Why do domestic passengers not have to be vaccinated? Why are you trying to pass responsibility to the states?
Again, thanks to the ASA for the question. Al, I've spoken a bit about vaccinations in my opening comments. Alan, you might want to respond. You might also just wanna talk a bit about what we can sensibly do with people traveling across states and what are our responsibilities versus state responsibilities as well.
Yeah, Richard, the whole industry in Australia has approached this in the same way, so have Virgin, Rex, all the domestic players. The reality is that every state has put in a requirement to be vaccinated or expected to put in a requirement to be vaccinated, so that in fact is in place. It is easier for the states to make those requirements and have the public health orders in place where there are penalties for people that don't follow it, and it makes it very clear that we then can communicate that to customers as they are traveling. The domestic operation is not set up in the same way as the international operations with passport checks and checks that can be automated.
We think this is the best way of doing it, and it has the same outcome anyway. Richard.
Chairman, this question also comes from the Australian Shareholders' Association. You have stated that you will reach net zero emissions by 2050, probably utilizing offsets. What is your realistic 2030 target?
Again, thanks to the ASA. I've touched on this a couple of times. Alan, do you want to add anything? Do you wanna add anything about Andrew Parker's appointment or what we're looking at doing next year?
I think as Richard pointed out at the start, we've been one of the airlines that have taken a lead on this, the second airline group to commit to net zero by 2050. We have been and are working on a 2030 target, which Andrew has been recently appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer is developing. In our half-year results, we will come out what that interim target is. As you can imagine, Richard covered it all, but that would cover what we need to do on sustainable aviation fuel, what we need to do on offsets, and what we need to do on new technology. I will say that Qantas has the world's leading offset program. 11% of our customers on qantas.com offset their carbon emissions, which is the world-leading one.
We have high-quality offset programs, as Richard mentioned earlier, which we think is the benchmark standard that every airline should actually apply. Richard.
Chairman, this is the final question from the Australian Shareholders' Association in this section of the meeting. Many severely impacted industries, such as hospitality, have seen recruitment especially challenging as the recovery occurs. Does the company have any specific strategies around recruitment as well as employee retention to ensure they are equipped to service the recovery demand?
Yeah, thanks Amanda and Alan thank you to you and your team, Alan Golden, that is. As I said in my opening remarks, you know, we're acutely aware of the need to focus on employee retention and getting our people back to work, particularly in the recovery phase. I think your question is actually going to apply more broadly across the country as everyone gets back to work, and we are seeing the impact of closed borders, lack of people movement, and indeed, international arrivals into Australia. I think this is gonna be a pretty interesting area for businesses to focus on in the near and medium term.
One of the things we're looking at, as I said earlier, is a reward and retention bonus for all employees across the group. Well, we've delayed announcing that until February because that we just wanna get a better view of how things are going across the business. We're very confident on recruitment that Qantas is a business and a brand that people really wanna come and work for. I've spoken to, I know other members of the board and Alan and the executive team have spoken to a lot of employees over the last 18 months, and almost without exception, where they've had other jobs, they want to get back to work at Qantas, and they wanna get back in into our various businesses in aviation and the other businesses.
We're confident when the time comes, we'll be able to recruit the people we need, and we can get our people back to work. We are conscious that this is gonna be a significant issue for many businesses. As I said, we're looking very, very closely at what we can do in the early part of next year.
Chairman, shareholder Henrik Kay has asked the next question: I would like to suggest that flights to a second U.K. airport, for example, Manchester, due to the security dangers at Heathrow. It's a risk to passengers as it has lots of pickpockets and scammers, and this would help passengers going to northern England and Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Well, thanks for the question, Henrik. Alan, you're a very frequent traveler through the U.K. Do you wanna respond to that question?
Yeah, Henrik, you must have had a bad experience. I've gone through Heathrow lots of times and never been pick-pocketed. It's a pretty safe airport. People should look up Smartraveller to look at advice for the very different destinations to go to. Heathrow is an important destination for us 'cause it's a great hub, and a lot of our traffic wants to go to London. There are alternatives on the Qantas Group to get to other places in the U.K. and Ireland. I know that Emirates have a great flight into Dublin. If you want to get to Northern Ireland, that's how I'd recommend you get there. It's only a short drive up. They have flights into Manchester, I think Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and Birmingham.
I think they have a massive network there with the Qantas code on it, so you can earn Qantas frequent flyer points. Book on the Qantas codes, the best way of getting there.
Chairman, shareholder Henrik Kay has asked another question: How can I claim the reward for being double vaccinated?
Again, Henrik, Alan, or if you want Olivia to answer that, but you probably know how to do it, Alan.
We'll quickly raise it, Richard. Henrik, yeah, good question. You need to download the Qantas app. You need to go to your Medicare app. Obviously, you need to register on that. It's very easy to get your vaccination certificate. Then you upload it through the Qantas app. 500,000 people have already done it. Most of them have requested Qantas Frequent Flyer points, I think 75%. We have a choice of frequent flyer points, discounts or status credits. It's very easy to do, so please do it and avail of it.
You get into the draw, which will come up at the end of the year for some amazing super prizes, mega prizes, where you will get free flights on Qantas and Jetstar for a year, one winner per state or territory, and you get free hotel accommodation with Accor, and you get free fuel with bp. Please do it by the end of December, 'cause then we'll be making the draw across the country. Thanks, Henrik.
Chairman, shareholder Helen Trenery is asking when you anticipate masks will no longer be required on flights?
Thanks Helen. That's gonna be, I think, a very common question we get from a lot of our customers in the times ahead. Not a simple one to answer. Alan, I'll get you to respond. Obviously, we're gonna comply with health advice, but Alan?
Yeah, we are obviously gonna have to apply the health advice that we're getting, and it is a federal government requirement. For those nations and states that are ahead of us, you know, the U.S., the Europeans are ahead, there's still mask mandates and requirements that are taking place there. We think they'll be in place for some time. We will reiterate, as Richard said at the start, that an aircraft is one of the safest form of travel. We do know that the HEPA filters, the air circulation, the fact that seats are facing forward minimizes your risk considerably, and having masks even minimizes it more so.
I think you can expect that will be there for some time, and hopefully we'll get back to a normal way of flying when the health advice is that it's safe to do so.
Chairman, shareholder Matthew Price has asked the next question: To maintain Qantas's competitiveness, can you comment on when service levels, including meals and beverages, will be restored, especially around the regional WA network, which has maintained loads, and I assume profit, during the pandemic?
Yeah, thanks Amanda. Thanks Matthew, for the question. I actually think we've done pretty well at maintaining service levels in a very difficult environment. We had a bit of an update at the board meeting yesterday on it, but Alan, can you respond more specifically to Matthew's question?
Yeah. There's a lot of exciting things happening in this space, and Stephanie Tully, our Chief Customer Officer, is here, so I'll get her to comment on how this is gonna ramp up. Steph?
Thanks Alan, and thanks Matthew, for the question. We have lots of exciting developments. Intra WA, actually the service is pretty much restored now. The people in Western Australia that are luckily flying freely between the Western Australian ports, you'll find food and beverage on every flight. We've got all of our lounges open, and you can, you know, use those lounges if you're a member or a Qantas Club member or a frequent flyer. The services are back, and on all of our other domestic flights flying as well. We have got a number of things planned just to enhance that service over the next year, so we look forward to introducing that as well. Thanks Alan.
Steph, I might add on top of that, in terms of competitiveness, I think Qantas will be way out there in the lead. We have 35 domestic lounges that we will be reopening. We already have at least one lounge open in the major capitals, and we're gonna ramp up all of them. We have the best frequent flyer program. We have an all-inclusive requirement on board aircraft, where you get the meals, you get the drink free of charge. Our product is by far better than any other airline operating domestically. Jetstar is offering the lowest airfares and has a low fares guarantee. If you want low airfares or you want a full service product, you really only have two choices in Australia.
Chairman, shareholder Jonathan Theuret has asked the next question: Will there be further status extension support for 2022/2023 for frequent flyers who are restarting to fly, but not as frequently as pre-pandemic?
Well, thanks Jonathan. I know a lot of our frequent flyers value their status, position. Alan, do you wanna take that? I know you've got Olivia somewhere with you as well.
Yeah. Liv's ready to take that, Richard. Olivia Wirth, who's our CEO of Qantas Loyalty, is happy to take the question.
Thank you for the question. As you'd be aware, we've been working with our frequent flyers over the last 18 months to make sure that it's easier for them to maintain their status with Qantas, whether that's Gold, Platinum or Platinum One. In fact, we've had four different times where we have extended the status for our most frequent flyers. We recognize that many of our frequent flyers have been choosing to fly with Qantas, in some cases for many decades, so it's been important to extend the status during what has been a difficult period when many people haven't been able to travel. The last time we made this announcement was a few weeks ago, which further extends the status of our many frequent flyers.
We've also been providing new ways for our frequent flyers to earn status credits on the ground, which makes it easier for them to extend their tiers despite the fact they haven't been able to travel. We'll be keeping a close eye on this. We'll be encouraging people to get back in the air, and we do expect that our travelers will return to their frequent traveling, not only domestically but internationally over the next 12 months, but it's something that we'll continue to keep an eye on as we expand our travel over the next 12 months.
Chairman, shareholder Aaron Graham has asked the next question: How much CapEx are you looking at spending for each of Project Winton and Project Sunrise, and when will this be expected to be incurred? Will this be funded from debt, or would you be looking at raising equity?
Thanks Aaron, and that's a great question. Just before I respond, I'll get Alan to respond as well. I must say how good it is to hear from two of the GMC members in Steph and Olivia. Again, I'd just reiterate what a terrific job that Alan and that team have done. Aaron, your question's a really good one. As I said earlier, we're excited about the opportunities around Winton and Sunrise. But the board, as you would expect, going into the crisis, through the crisis, and coming out, has been very focused on liquidity and our capital management framework. Vanessa Hudson, our CFO, has been very focused on that.
There's obviously significant capital, but that will be layered over many years as our aircraft orders will be, and we'll look to mitigate risk. Alan, do you wanna respond in a bit more detail?
Yeah. Great, Richard. Vanessa's here, so maybe Vanessa could handle this question. Vanessa.
Thanks Alan, and thanks for the question. Firstly, I think it's really important, as Richard said, that the Project Winton is a period of reinvestment renewal of the domestic fleet that will be in excess of 10 years. This is absolutely going to be a part of our normal capital program, and that is always judged through the lens of the financial framework, and will always be in balance with that. I think importantly as well, as we've spoken about today at the AGM, our financial framework and our funding approach to all CapEx predominantly will be based on our future cash generation through the business.
We feel very confident as the business recovers from the impact of the COVID that the business will have a significant amount of cash flow that it will generate over that future period, including the benefits that we will see come through from AUD 1 billion worth of transformation that we are confident as well in delivering. We feel that it is going to be very possible to fund this CapEx and also fund as well Sunrise during that program. We feel that the business is well set up to fund both programs over the coming period.
Chairman, shareholder Aaron Graham has another question: Do you expect the Asian network to be substantially different post-COVID, i.e., flying to new destinations like Seoul and Taipei? I know Qantas recently announced flights into India via Darwin.
Well, thanks Aaron. I mean, one of the things that we've become very good at over the last couple of years is looking for opportunities, new opportunities. We've also done some work through the pandemic, for example, to extend the range of a number of our A330s to give us some further options. But Alan, do you wanna talk specifically about Asia and the subcontinent as well?
Yeah. Thanks Richard. We might pass this to Andrew David, who's been looking at all of the opportunities for Qantas into the region. Andrew.
Thanks for the question, Aaron. It's actually Sydney direct into Delhi that we've launched. As Alan commented before, we're bringing 380s forward. We've got all of our 78s in the air and similarly our 330s. We are looking at new opportunities, and we are moving quickly to respond to demand. We've announced a number of routes that we're going back into ahead of the Christmas period, and we'll be progressively adding more in the coming months. As Alan said, we're very, very focused on getting our staff back flying. We're focused on cash generation and getting these aircraft operating around the globe. We will, where there are opportunities, Aaron, be looking at new opportunities, whether it's Korea, Taiwan, or any other opportunity.
Asia continues to be a very important market for both Qantas and Jetstar. Thanks Alan.
Chairman, shareholder Daniel has asked the next question. Brisbane Airport built a new runway and Auckland Airport is building a new runway. Are there any plans to expand in those markets as there is more available capacity?
Thanks Daniel. As an overall comment, I'd say we're looking forward to working with all our airport partners in terms of enhancing the experience for our customers, whether that's in the terminals or lack of delays on the ground coming in or flying out. Obviously, we'll be looking at flying to places where the demand is. Alan, do you wanna add to that?
Yeah. You maybe briefly on Richard. Yeah, we're obviously very keen to continue to work with airports. We have a lot of negotiations that continually go on with airports, and we've always of the belief that this expansion should be in time for growth requirements. We're also very concerned that some airports seem to build Taj Mahals and then charge it back to the airlines. We're very keen on expansion when it can be done economically and sensibly with the airports. With Brisbane and Auckland, there are significant opportunities that we think are there, as there is with Western Sydney Airport, which hopefully will be completed at 26. We continue through Project Winton and through our international operations, look at ways to expand.
Before COVID, as an example, out of Brisbane, we had plans to grow our flights across the Pacific. We had plans to do Brisbane to L.A., which we've had for some time, but San Francisco, and we were going to launch a Chicago service. Hopefully, as we recover from COVID, we can reinstate those plans as soon as possible and expand the 787 operations out of Brisbane into North America in particular. Similarly, in Auckland, Jetstar was continuing to announce expansion of its domestic services and growth of its domestic operations. Hopefully, post the pandemic, we can revisit some of those growth opportunities as well.
One more question. Chairman, shareholder Matthew Price has asked, "Is there any news on when the direct Brisbane to Chicago flight may commence or is it too early to tell at this stage?
Thanks Matthew. I think Alan sort of inadvertently answered that or just then, but Alan, do you just wanna confirm for Matthew your response on Brisbane-Chicago?
Yeah, Richard. Matthew, the plans are to get that network reestablished as soon as possible, subject to obviously, continued easing of restrictions, us getting back to a more normal demand pattern. As we reactivate the A380s, the way it works is that we've said earlier that we're trying to get Sydney-L.A. back to an A380 in April, which we should be able to do, and Sydney-London back to an A380 in July. That releases the 787s that are essentially doing those flights up to those dates, and those 787s can be used for expansion across the Pacific and into Asia. We also have, and we should have mentioned earlier, there are other expansion opportunities for Jetstar. I think Jetstar will be looking at coming back into the Korean market, which is planned there.
Jetstar is getting some new A320NEOs, which will allow it to free up some of the 787s for further expansion to new markets in Asia. There's a lot of great opportunities on both brands into Asia and to North America, and it just will take a little bit of time to get the recovery, get us up and running again and making sure that the demand is there, which we think it will be, before we establish that network.
Chairman, shareholder Sarah J. Fanhurst has asked, "Do you think video conferencing will reduce travel demand overall in the future?
Thanks Sarah. It's a very good question. It's interesting, early on in the pandemic, I think a lot of people sort of hypothesized that that would be the case. Now, it feels like there's a Zoom. People are done with it. I shouldn't just point out Zoom, but done with that sort of meeting. My sense is that there's a very strong push and desire for people to wanna get back face-to-face, whether that's in business meetings or obviously in family, with family and friends.
We think it'll take a little bit of time to recover, and we're gonna make it as attractive and easy as we can for our business customers to get back flying and seeing their customers and seeing their colleagues. We did, Alan, you might want to comment on this. We did see a pretty rapid uptake of business travel when things looked better earlier this year before the Delta strain sort of impacted, particularly on the eastern seaboard. I mean, we think there will be some long-lasting impacts from the pandemic, but we're pretty confident that travel of all types will. There's very strong demand and you know, we'll do our bit to get our customers safely back in the sky and to their destinations. Alan, do you want to add anything to that?
That's a good answer, Richard. I think in addition to it, we probably have unique characteristics here with the Qantas business market, in particular. In our domestic market, 60% of the corporate market is actually in three sectors, the fly in, fly out, construction, and government. What we saw before the Delta variant hit, as Richard said, is those segments were actually growing. They're segments that Zoom and Microsoft Teams aren't really an alternative for. In the other 40%, we were expecting a hit of maybe up to, the research said, maybe up to 30%, which gave us an impact of 10%-15% in terms of volume. What we were seeing with Virgin going into bankruptcy is that we were moving share of the corporate market.
I think we won over 34 corporate accounts in the last year or so, which means that the impact of that was going to be a lot smaller. In addition, internationally, 'cause we have such longer sectors internationally, what we were seeing or what we believe will happen is most of our traffic, and even in the premium classes, is premium leisure. There are people paying for the tickets. We think on those long-haul traffic, there still is significant requirement for people to travel. Talking to a lot of the professional firms, a lot of the banks, they believe building up those networks again internationally, seeing their customers internationally, making sure that they make those visits are key. A large element of the traffic in those premium cabins actually is for leisure.
It may take a little bit longer for that to recover, but a solution to that is to fly the 787s, which has a smaller amount of premium seats than the A380s to help with that recovery. We think that will allow us to get back into full recovery as the A380s come back online by the end of 2022 and into 2023. That's the way we'll cope with any impact on demand on the international network.
There are no further issues raised online for this section of the meeting and no questions on the phone.
Well, thanks, Amanda. If there are no further questions, I'll move to the next item of ordinary business. The second item of formal business for this meeting is the reelection of directors. The directors offering themselves for reelection at today's meeting include Belinda Hutchinson, Antony Tyler, and Todd Sampson. Pursuant to the Qantas Constitution and the ASX Listing Rules, it is necessary for each director, other than the CEO, to seek reelection by shareholders at least every three years. The notice of meeting annual report contain details of the directors' background and experience. We'll shortly also hear from each of the directors. The board regularly reviews its composition to ensure it has the right mix of skills and experience among our directors.
We consider that individually and collectively, the directors have an appropriate amount of skills, experience, and expertise to set the strategic direction of the group and monitor the implementation of that strategy by management. Again, I'd like to thank my fellow directors for their valuable contribution and leadership over the past year, under what has been very trying circumstances. Item 2.1 of today's meeting relates to the reelection of Belinda Hutchinson. Belinda Hutchinson was appointed to the Qantas board in April 2018. She's a member of the Safety, Health, Environment and Security Committee and the Audit Committee. The board believes Ms. Hutchinson's extensive experience on numerous boards and in financial services adds to the depth of experience currently on the Qantas board and enables her to make a valuable contribution to the board as a member of those committees.
As I've outlined in the notice of the meeting, it's planned that Ms. Hutchinson will become chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee following the AGM. The directors, with Ms. Hutchinson abstaining, unanimously support her reelection and recommend that you vote in favor of this resolution. Belinda, can I now ask you to say a few words?
Thank you, Richard, and good afternoon, everyone. It was an honor to be invited to join the board back in 2018 at a time of unparalleled success for Qantas. However, as we all know, over the past two years, it has been the most challenging time in the 100 years of our company's history. It's quite extraordinary. Throughout my 30-year career in the financial services sector and on the board of some of Australia's largest companies, I've been through many periods of challenge and rapid change, and this includes my current role as Chancellor of the University of Sydney. In that role, it's involved me working with another critically impacted organization in responding and adapting at pace to the global pandemic.
With my fellow members of the Qantas Audit and Risk Committee and the board, we have had oversight of the company's rapid and effective response to the extraordinary close to AUD 20 billion reduction in revenue. Management's clear focus on cash flow through raising debt and equity, cutting back to only essential costs, transforming operations, and selling property has enabled Qantas to rebuild a financially sustainable future. In addition, through the Safety, Health, Environment and Security Committee, we have had oversight of the safe shutdown and restart of flying operations, which I am delighted continues as we ramp up the domestic and international services. I would like to add my special thanks to Qantas staff who have endured such a difficult time, yet retained their commitment and passion for our company.
I would also like to thank our loyal customers and shareholders for their ongoing support during this, hopefully, once in a century pandemic. This is what makes it such a privilege to serve on this board and why I'm seeking your support for re-election. I look forward to continuing to contribute my experience to the challenging but exciting recovery that lies ahead of us. It is my goal to continue to support our company, so it once again delivers long-term sustainable growth and returns as well as give back to the communities that have supported us. Thank you.
Thank you, Belinda. I now formally propose the following ordinary resolution that Belinda Hutchinson, a Non-Executive Director, retiring in accordance with the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.5, being eligible, is re-elected as a Non-Executive Director of Qantas Airways Limited. Amanda, I'll now take questions on Belinda's re-election, and I note that there were no pre-submitted questions for this item. Have you got any online or on the phone now?
Chairman, there are no questions online or on the phone.
Thank you. If there are no questions online or on the phone, I'll turn to the details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. On the screen are details of the proxy votes received in respect of Belinda's re-election. Well done, Belinda. The second re-election is that of Antony Tyler being item 2.2 of the notice of meeting. Antony Tyler was appointed to the Qantas Board in October 2018. He is Chairman of the Safety, Health, Environment and Security Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee. The board believes that Mr. Tyler's extensive international aviation experience and strong industry relationships, together with his commercial and management experience, will enable him to continue to make a significant contribution to the board. The directors with Mr. Tyler abstaining unanimously support his re-election and recommend you vote in favor of this resolution.
We'll now hear a brief message from Tony.
Thank you Chairman, for the opportunity to say a few words. The past 18 months have demonstrated the strength of Qantas's foundations and the resilience of the current business. Very few airlines have the ability to respond as quickly or effectively as Qantas did when the pandemic struck. The group made difficult but necessary decisions to safeguard the company and prepare it to emerge from the pandemic in a very sound position. Through the pandemic, I've been able to share some of my knowledge and experience managing international airlines through other significant periods of disruption. During my 30-year career at Cathay Pacific, we navigated a number of major crises, including 9/11, SARS, and the Asian and global financial crises, although, of course, none of these had the same degree of impact as the coronavirus pandemic.
Later, I led the International Air Transport Association for five years, which gave me a global perspective on the airline industry, the challenges it faces, and the different strategies for success. As a director of both Bombardier and BOC Aviation, I also bring different perspectives on the shape of the global aviation recovery. The management of this company has done an exceptional job steering Qantas through the crisis to this point, but there is still work to be done to ensure our recovery is sustained. I look forward to continuing to support Qantas through this critical period. Thank you.
Well, thank you Tony, and can I acknowledge your great service over the last couple of years, even though you've found it very difficult to travel. You've worked extraordinary hours at all hours of the night, your time to not just do your director's duties, but help with the team on operational issues. Thank you, Tony. I now formally propose the following ordinary resolution that Antony Tyler, a non-executive director, retiring in accordance with the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.5, being eligible, is re-elected as a non-executive director of Qantas Airways Limited. Amanda, I'll now take questions on Tony's re-election. I note again that there were no pre-submitted questions for this item. Do you have any online or any on the telephone?
Chairman, no questions online or on the phone.
Thanks Amanda. So if there are no questions, I'll turn to the details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. On screen are details of proxy votes received in respect of Tony's re-election. That's a pretty strong endorsement, Tony, so congratulations. The third and final re-election today is that of Todd Sampson being item 2.3 of the notice of meeting. Todd Sampson was appointed to the Qantas Board in February 2015. He's a member of the Remuneration Committee. The board believes that Mr. Sampson's significant marketing and management experience enables him to make a valuable contribution to the board and the Remuneration Committee. The directors with Mr. Sampson abstaining unanimously support his re-election and recommend that you vote in favor of this resolution. Todd, can I now ask you to say a few words, please?
Thank you Richard, and good afternoon to all shareholders, and thanks for hanging in there online. Qantas occupies a unique position in our country's economy and society. Now more than ever, people are turning to companies that they trust and respect, and when it comes to travel, there is no company they trust or respect more than Qantas. It's a trust we work to earn every day. I bring over 20 years experience, leadership experience across roles in marketing, communication, new media, and strategy. It's been a privilege, it's an honor actually, to be a director of this iconic company over the last 6 years. With your support, I'm excited to continue to help Qantas focus on its customers and arguably, more importantly, capitalize on the incredible pent-up demand for travel. Thank you, and thanks for your support in the past.
Thanks Todd. I now formally propose the following ordinary resolution: that Todd Sampson, a non-executive director retiring in accordance with the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.5, being eligible, is re-elected as a non-executive director of Qantas Airways Limited. Amanda, I'll now take questions on Todd's re-election. I note again that there were no pre-submitted questions for this item. Do you have any online or on the telephone?
Chairman, no questions online or on the phone.
Thanks Amanda. I'll then turn to details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. On the screen are details of proxy votes received in respect of Todd's re-election. As per Belinda and Tony, Todd, that's very strong support, and congratulations. We now move to consider items of business relating to remuneration, namely resolutions 3 and 4 set out in the notice of meeting. Before considering these resolutions, we'll hear a few remarks from Paul Rayner, the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, on Qantas' approach to rem and this year's remuneration report. During his address, Paul Rayner will specifically deal with remuneration-related themes emerging from the questions submitted in advance of the meeting. I'd now like to invite Paul Rayner to address our shareholders.
Thank you Richard. I would like to present this year's remuneration report to Qantas shareholders. The report outlines our approach to executive remuneration, and it describes how pay outcomes are linked to performance, and it also details the pay decisions that have been made by the board. This has been one of the toughest periods in the Qantas Group's long history, and this is reflected both in the Group's financial results as well as the board's approach to remuneration for 2021. Now, the remuneration framework at Qantas is comprised of, firstly, base pay, which is annual salary. There's an annual incentive which is referred to as the Short-Term Incentive Plan, where each year, executives may receive a combination of cash and restricted shares if the plan's performance targets are achieved. We also have a Long-Term Incentive Plan, which is referred to as the LTIP.
The LTIP involves the granting of rights over Qantas shares, and if performance and service conditions are achieved over a 3-year period, then the rights vest and they convert to Qantas shares. The vested shares are then subject to a 1-year trading restriction during which the shares cannot be traded, and they're subject to clawback. If performance and service conditions are not met, then the LTIP rights lapse and no shares are awarded. Now, if we turn to the remuneration outcomes for 2021 for each element of the framework we've just been through. First, we look at base pay. The agreed base pay of the CEO and executive management team has not increased since July 1, 2019, other than for the newly promoted Chief Financial Officer, who received an increase at the start of FY 2021.
Following three months of receiving no base pay for the CEO and executive management in 2020, the CEO elected to continue to take zero base pay for the month of July 2020, and from August 1 elected to forgo 35% of his base pay through to October 2020 inclusive. Similarly, executive management received no base pay for three months in 2020 and elected to forgo a further 15% of their base pay through to October 31, 2020. Moving now to the next part of the framework, which is the annual incentive outcome. Awards under the annual incentive would normally be determined based on performance against the balanced scorecard of measures.
This is a mix of financial and important non-financial targets, and they are aligned to the Qantas Group's strategic priorities. For 2021, these included financial measures which involved cash preservation, delivery against our recovery plan, and as well as non-financial measures such as customer performance and workplace and operational safety. The executive team have performed very well in extremely tough circumstances, and this is reflected in a strong balanced scorecard outcome, and it was against both the financial and the non-financial components of the scorecard. However, the ongoing lockdowns, the border closures, and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 continue to have a significant impact on our business and our people. The board recognizes that incentive payments must be considered in the context of the overall operating environment.
Therefore, the board applied its discretion for the second consecutive year and determined that annual bonuses would not be paid for this year. The final element of the remuneration framework is the long-term incentive. Now, the performance conditions under the long-term incentive plan or LTIP are relative total shareholder return, or TSR, of Qantas compared to two peer groups, being companies in the ASX 100 and a peer group of global listed airlines. Long-term incentive plans awarded were tested at the 13th of June 2021, and the performance conditions were partially achieved. The Qantas three-year relative TSR performance was ranked the top quartile in the airline peer group, and hence, this performance condition was fully achieved. It was below median in the ASX 100, so therefore, this performance condition was not achieved.
Qantas TSR has outperformed most airline peers over the past 3 years, and in fact, Qantas has achieved a top quartile performance in each of the past 6 rolling 3-year periods. This is an exceptional performance. Based on this performance against our airline peers, for executive management, 50% of the rights vested and converted to shares, and the remaining rights lapsed. In the case of the CEO, whose award of rights was approved by you, the shareholders, in 2018, he offered, as he did in the previous year in 2020, and the board agreed to defer the decision as to whether his rights will be forfeited or allowed to convert to shares until at least August 2022.
With respect to the CEO's 2018 to 2020 LTIP rights, the CEO and the board also agreed to further defer the decision as to whether his rights will be forfeited or allowed to convert to shares until at least August 2022. The overall total remuneration for the CEO and executive management in 2021 was slightly higher than the previous year in 2020. The increase is primarily due to management electing to receive no base pay for the three months in 2020, which I referred to earlier. The CEO and executive management had further base pay reductions in 2021. However, these reductions were not as large as their base pay reductions in 2020.
I also note that the 2021 pay outcomes for the management team remain significantly lower than their target pay and significantly lower than the pay outcome they received pre-COVID in 2019. In fact, the CEO's total pay in 2021 was 80% lower than his 2019 pay outcome. Consistent with the executive management team, non-executive directors relinquished three months of fees in 2020. Going into 2021, the chairman received no fees for July 2021 and had a 35% reduction in fees from 1 August 2020 until 31 October 2020. The other non-executive directors had a 15% reduction in fees through to the 31st of October 2020.
Finally, as I outlined in the remuneration report, the board is considering changes to the executive remuneration framework that may apply going forward for fiscal year 2022. Few companies have been hit hard, as hard by COVID as Qantas, and the pandemic has increased significantly the pressures that are placed on all our people. For our executives, workload and complexity has increased and remuneration has fallen with two years of reduced base pay and two consecutive years where annual incentives have not been paid. Now, this necessary restraint on remuneration is taking place as many other industries boom, and they can reward their people accordingly. The board at Qantas understands the clear retention risk that this creates for us.
This retention risk is occurring at a time when retaining our executives is critical to the delivery of our three-year recovery plan and setting up your company, Qantas, for success beyond the pandemic. To that end, the board is considering how best to structure the executive remuneration framework for 2022 to retain and incentivize our executives. Now, while any such plan would operate alongside the Long Term Incentive Plan, it would be in lieu of any short-term incentive plan in fiscal year 2022. The board is also considering a separate plan that would operate to reward our non-executive employees. I anticipate that the decision regarding both these plans would be made and, if appropriate, announced early in the new year.
In conclusion, the key point I would like you to take away is that it's the board's aim to ensure that pay outcomes are aligned and appropriate for the environment in which Qantas, its people, and its shareholders are operating. The board also recognizes the considerable effort of the executive team and that demands on them are greater than ever. It is critical for the recovery that our remuneration framework works to retain a high-performing management team and rewards and incentivizes all employees in setting up Qantas for post-pandemic success. We will continue to review the remuneration framework, and we welcome your comments and suggestions for any further improvements.
Finally, I'd like to say it's been an absolute honor and a privilege serving the board of Qantas for the last 13.5 years, but I'm very confident that Jacquie Hay will lead the Remuneration Committee very well during these challenging times. I'll now hand back to the chairman who will present the resolutions.
Well, thank you, Paul, and again, thanks for your leadership on this committee and at board level. The third item of formal business for this meeting is to consider the proposed award of rights to your CEO, Alan Joyce, under the group's Long Term Incentive Plan. This award is explained in the notice of meeting. However, I'd like to reiterate an important point on the operation of the Long Term Incentive Plan. These rights will only vest and convert to shares if the three-year performance conditions are fully achieved. For rights to vest in full, our total shareholder return needs to outperform 75% of the companies in the ASX 100 as well as 75% of the global airlines peer group. Should these conditions be achieved, the rights will vest and convert to Qantas shares on a one-for-one basis.
These shares would then be subject to an additional one-year holding lock. If the performance conditions are not achieved, the rights lapse and no shares are awarded. As outlined in the notice of meeting, Qantas will disregard any votes cast on this resolution by Alan Joyce, his associates, and his closely related parties, except as directed by any proxies. Proxy votes cast by key management personnel and their closely related parties will also be disregarded where the votes are undirected. As chairman of this meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. The directors, with Alan Joyce abstaining, recommend that you vote in favor of this ordinary resolution.
I now formally propose the following ordinary resolution that Alan Joyce, the Chief Executive Officer of Qantas Airways Limited, is permitted to participate in the Qantas Long Term Incentive Plan as contemplated by the explanatory notes accompanying this 2021 notice of meeting. Amanda, I'll now take any questions on this item.
Chairman, shareholder Christine Costello asks why Alan Joyce will receive such an excessive amount of performance share rights under the Long Term Incentive Plan when his remuneration is already generous. Qantas has shed 6,000+ jobs and dividends for shareholders for FY 2021 have been 0.
Thanks Christine. I think Paul alluded to a number of the reasons in his address on remuneration. Let me again reiterate, these are awards of rights. They don't vest unless we outperform both, well, in two areas, one against a basket of other airlines and one against the ASX 100, and we'll need to perform well for all of the rights to vest. I think it's worth me highlighting what Paul has already said, which is the restraint on executive pay at Qantas during the pandemic. Indeed, I believe Qantas has been an exemplar in terms of executive remuneration over the last two years. As CEO pay is down 80% pre-COVID and executive pay is down 70%.
That includes Alan and the executive group taking periods of months through last year where they received no income. We've had no short-term incentive for the last two years and potentially for this year. We've had pay freezes as well. I think we're incredibly well-served by Alan and the executive team. Indeed, in my experience, Alan is, if not the best, one of the best CEOs I've ever worked for, and I think Qantas is, indeed fortunate to have a Chief Executive of his caliber and his values running the organization. Again, I'd reiterate, Christine, the board's strong endorsement of this plan that Alan will be rewarded appropriately if the shareholder outcomes are strong, and of course, we all hope they are. Any other questions, Amanda?
Chairman, no questions online or on the phone.
Thanks Amanda. If there aren't any further questions, I'll turn to details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. On screen are details of the proxy votes received in advance of the meeting in respect of this resolution. We'll now move to the next item of business, which is the remuneration report. The fourth item of formal business for this meeting is to consider an advisory resolution to approve the remuneration report. The remuneration decisions made by the board during the year were just outlined by Paul and are detailed in our rem report. Qantas will disregard any votes on this resolution by key management personnel whose remuneration is detailed in the remuneration report and their closely related parties, except if cast as a proxy and the votes are directed.
As Chairman of this meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of this advisory resolution. The directors recommend that you vote in favor of this advisory resolution. I now formally propose the following advisory resolution that the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2021, set out in the directors' report, is adopted. Amanda, I'll now take any questions on this item.
Chairman, we have a question from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Your actual TSR is negative, but you've performed better than your comparator group. Why do you think your executive should get a bonus when shareholders have suffered?
Yeah, thank you to the ASA for that question. It's something the board has considered and that we talk to shareholders about as well. Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it's very important to note that Qantas, over a long period of time, and particularly over the last few years, has formed incredibly well against almost every other airline in the world, I think with the exception of one North American airline. While we've had negative TSR, it's a heck of a lot better than almost, as I said, every other airline. That's because of the work that the Alan and the executive team have put in to ensure we went into the pandemic in good shape, and we come through it in good shape.
I think as you've all heard today, we have a degree of optimism around the future. We also believe, the board also believes that our equity-based plans are very important means of retention. They are based on service and as Paul said, also can't be traded for a year after vesting. So we continue to believe that the approach we have to our Long Term Incentive Plan is the right one given the industry we're in. As I said at the start of my answer, you know, in comparison to pretty much investing in pretty much every other airline in the world, as I said, with the possible exception of one or two provided better outcomes for shareholders investing in this area.
Over the long term, you'll see that the payments, incentive payments to our employees match pretty well the outcomes that shareholders have had. I think if you look at our remuneration report, you'll see a pretty strong correlation over the last 10 years. Amanda, any other questions?
Chairman, there are no questions online or on the phone.
Thanks Amanda. Given there are no further questions, I'll turn to the details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. On the screen are details of the proxy votes received in advance of the meeting in respect of this resolution. We'll now move on to the last item of business. The fifth and final item of formal business for this meeting is to consider a special resolution to amend the Qantas Constitution. A number of different amendments have been proposed which seek to reflect certain changes to corporate governance practices, the Corporations Act, and the ASX Listing Rules, as well as update certain legacy provisions and outdated terminology. A number of the changes also seek to achieve efficient and flexible administration of the company and relations with shareholders.
As notified to the ASX on 15th October 2021, Qantas became aware of reservations expressed about the use by listed companies of virtual meetings. While the proposed virtual meeting provisions would have only been relied upon in exceptional circumstances, the board determined to withdraw those specific proposed amendments. Pre-pandemic, as the national carrier, Qantas proudly held its AGM in a different state each year, and the board and I look forward to continuing that tradition from 2022 onwards. Now, as a special resolution, at least 75% of the votes must be in favor of this item for it to pass. As chairman of this meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of this special resolution. The directors recommend that you vote in favor of this special resolution.
I now formally propose the following special resolution that, in accordance with Section 136(2) of the Corporations Act, the amendments to the Company's Constitution, as described in the explanatory notes accompanying the notice of meeting, be approved with effect from the end of the meeting. Amanda, I'll now take any questions on this item. I note there were no pre-submitted questions on this item. Do you have any online or on the telephone?
Chairman, there are no questions online or on the phone.
Thanks Amanda. If there are no further questions, I'll turn to the details of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting. Just before I close the meeting, I just wanted again to acknowledge that this is the last meeting, and that there just was the last board meeting for Barbara Ward and Paul Rayner. I've already thanked them for their service. Alan, I think you wanted to make a comment on behalf of management before I close the meeting.
Yeah. Thanks Richard. On behalf of management, as the CEO, I'd just like to thank Barbara and Paul for the amazing service they've given over the last 13 years. As long as I've been CEO, they've been on the board. I have to say, I've always said that the best set of advisors that you can have are the board, and I think we've been very fortunate to have two amazing chairmen during that period of time, Richard and Lee, but also an amazing set of directors with diverse skills that have helped us through unbelievable periods. We've seen the global financial crisis while Paul and Barbara have been there. QF32, the challenges that that brought. We've seen the industrial action of 2011.
We've seen the crisis, the financial crisis we had in 2013 and the recovery of that. Can I say, the skills that each of them brought helped us get through each of those tough periods and helped us in the good times. Paul, with his amazing financial background as being the CFO of one of the largest companies in the world, always challenged us on the financial framework and got Qantas to continue to improve in that position. He's always challenged us on making sure we maintained our competitive position, and he has been supportive when we need it. Barbara, with her experience in government and her knowledge of how government operate, has always been a great advisor with that.
Her knowledge of the aviation industry, being in charge of one of the biggest leasing companies in the world and allowing us to make really good decisions on fleet. She's been an amazing chair of the Audit Committee. Qantas has been lucky to have both of you. Thank you for your 13 years of service, and thank you for challenging management when it's needed and supporting management when it's needed. We will certainly miss you.
Thanks Alan, and again, I endorse those comments. Just for information, the Premier, West Australian Premier is talking about the pathway out. It sounds a bit like a plan to have a plan at the moment. A further announcement will be made once Western Australia gets to 80% double vaxxed, which is anticipated to be in December. Then a date will be set, which is estimated at the moment to be around late January, early February next year, when borders will open. Once that date's set, then it will be set. That's at least good news anyway. We'll get more information as the day continues. All resolutions have now been dealt with, which concludes the formal business of this meeting. I now declare the meeting closed.
Shareholders and proxy holders will have five minutes from now to submit their votes via the online platform if they've not already done so. A countdown timer will appear at the top of your screen on the online platform. Once that closes, any vote you have placed will automatically be submitted. Once all votes have been accounted for and verified by the share registry, the results of the AGM will be lodged with the ASX as soon as possible, which will be later this afternoon. I now declare the polls closed, and on behalf of the board, I thank you again for your ongoing support and for joining us today, for Qantas 2021 virtual AGM, and hopefully we'll see you on our aircraft, in the very near future. Thank you all.