Qantas chief says airline will post profit despite SARS CANBERRA, Australia (AP) =97 Qantas Airways will post a profit for the six= =20 months ending Dec. 31, despite the impact of the SARS virus on=20 international aviation, the company's chief executive said Sunday. Geoff=20 Dixon said the Australian flag carrier has been losing money in recent=20 weeks and the outlook was "difficult," but cost-cutting should deliver a=20 "certain level of profitability" in the six months ending December, the=20 first half of Australia's 2004 fiscal year. "We haven't set what our first= =20 half profit will be for next year, but I'd only say that we're confident we= =20 can make a profit and I'll leave it at that," Dixon told Nine Network=20 television's Business Sunday program. Last week, Qantas warned that it=20 expects its annual pretax profit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003,= =20 will be 20% to 30% lower than market expectations following a drop in=20 passenger numbers because of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Qantas=20 booked a 352.5 million Australian dollars ($224.6 million) net profit for=20 the six months ending Dec. 31 =97 the first half of the current fiscal year= =97=20 but in recent months the national carrier has been hit by SARS and the war= =20 in Iraq. The airline gave the updated estimate on Thursday at the request=20 of the Australian Stock Exchange. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************