Jet fuel prices will have to fall a lot further before Qantas begins to trim hefty fuel surcharges for passengers flying overseas.
The airline's boss Alan Joyce says while Qantas's fuel bill has dropped thanks to recent falls in the price of oil and the Australian dollar, the surcharges are here to stay.
Qantas expects a $2 billion fuel bill for its international business this financial year, with the surcharge added to plane tickets expected to cover only half of that.
Mr Joyce said Qantas was a long way away from seeing sustainable fuel price falls that would allow it to cut the surcharges.
"The reality is that we are talking about a business that lost half a billion dollars last year, so it's not as if the fuel surcharges are actually giving us profits, let alone super profits," he told reporters on Monday.
Qantas introduced fuel surcharges in 2004 in response to rising oil prices, which were then around $US44 a barrel.
At the time, one-way surcharges on international flights were just $15 per sector and $6 for domestic fares.
The current surcharge on an economy ticket to London is $285. There are no surcharges on domestic fares.
Mr Joyce said in most cases, the international economy surcharges were less than or equal to what they were in March 2012 despite Qantas's fuel costs for domestic and international flights hitting a record $4.5 billion last financial year.
He refused to say what reduction was needed in the fuel bill before surcharges would fall.
However he noted passengers had "never had it as good" in terms of falling international ticket prices, which have dropped by nearly a third in the past decade.
Mr Joyce's comments came as Qantas forecast an underlying first half pre-tax profit of between $300 million and $350 million, an improvement of more than $550 million from the loss recorded in the previous corresponding period.
The turnaround was attributed to progress with the airline's transformation program and a $30 million benefit from a near 40 per cent slide in oil prices to below $US70 a barrel and the Australian dollar falling under 85 US cents.
