On Monday, Lee said a “message must be sent to the broader corporate community that you can’t play the court for a fool and try to fashion your evidence in a careful way in order to try to dissemble what went on”.

Meanwhile, the latest snapshot of the nation’s aviation sector from the competition regulator has highlighted Qantas’ budget arm, Jetstar, as continuing to cash in on the lack of robust competition in the market.

Within Qantas’ whopping $1.5 billion earnings before tax in the first half of 2024-25, Jetstar increased prices to record an operating margin of 18 per cent.

‘The high half-yearly earnings reported by Qantas Group reflect its dominance of the domestic airline sector, with Qantas and Jetstar accounting for over 60 per cent of passengers.’

Anna Brakey, ACCC commissioner

That is up from 13 per cent in the first half of the 2023-24 financial year, the increase coinciding with fellow budget airline Bonza’s collapse in April 2024. It helped deliver a massive earnings increase for the Qantas Group, with Jetstar domestic flight revenue jumping 54 per cent in that same time.

The findings come from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s quarterly look at domestic airline competition, which found both Qantas and Virgin Australia had recorded impressive financial results in the second half of 2024.

Virgin has not publicly reported its half-year results, although chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said in February it had achieved record profits.

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ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said Jetstar’s earnings jump was largely explained by Bonza’s demise.

Compared with an 18 per cent operating margin on domestic flights, Jetstar’s international flights were at 15 per cent due to increased competition, the report said.

“The high half-yearly earnings reported by Qantas Group reflect its dominance of the domestic airline sector, with Qantas and Jetstar accounting for over 60 per cent of passengers,” Brakey said.

“Jetstar has been able to capitalise on the continued absence of competitive pressure from another low-cost carrier in the domestic market to increase its market share and operating margin.”

The report found airlines had improved their punctuality in the past six months from 74.5 per cent to 80.2 per cent. But that still sits below the industry’s long-term average of 80.7 per cent.

The cancellation rate spiked in the March quarter to 5 per cent, well above the long-term rate of 2.2 per cent, but that period included ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

After a peak in October 2024, the average real revenue per passenger fell by 16.1 per cent in the three months to January this year, before increasing again by 9.6 per cent by March.