The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price is up 5.3% in early afternoon trade.
Qantas shares closed yesterday at $4.66 and are currently trading for $4.91.
Other S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) travel shares are also helping to boost the index today.
The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price is up 7%; and Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) shares have gained 4.7%.
The Qantas share price is joining a wider global equities rally that saw the US S&P 500 Index gain 2.6% and Germany's DAX Index charge 7.9% higher yesterday (overnight Aussie time).
And with travel demand surging, Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce is optimistic about the year ahead.
Travel demand is on the up
Surging travel demand could offer more tailwinds to the Qantas share price.
Speaking at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Tuesday, Joyce highlighted the difficult year Qantas underwent in 2021.
With COVID-19 hobbling international and domestic travel throughout much of the year, Joyce said Qantas only had 18% of its total operations running. But now the airline is seeing "a surge in demand".
Joyce said (quoted by the AFR): "Domestic leisure is up over 100%. With Jetstar for a number of weeks now we're seeing this really strong demand coming through. We plan to get Jetstar to 120% by the middle of the year."
As for international markets, Joyce said:
What we're seeing internationally is when the borders are opening up, we're getting a massive bill. London is now ahead of the pre-COVID levels. It's been open since November. We've got more demand in London than we had before COVID. In LA more demand than before COVID.
The Qantas boss is thrilled that all state borders have finally reopened, with Western Australia the last state to rejoin the nation.
"The reunification of Australia – who thought that would be a thing? And it's fantastic. That's actually what has happened," he said.
Qantas share price snapshot
Despite today's bounce, the Qantas share price remains down 4.8% since the opening bell on 4 January. By comparison, the ASX 200 is down 6.1% year to date.
