The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price has breached the $6 mark for the first time since the pandemic hit in 2020.
In early morning trading, the ASX travel share is flying high, up 2.2% to $6.03.
The Qantas share price hit a new 52-week high of $6.075 shortly after the market open.
The share price gain comes despite no price-sensitive news being released by Qantas today.
Why is the Qantas share price up?
There's been a buzz around Qantas following an update last week that sent its share price soaring 12%.
Qantas told the market it expects to report an FY23 half-year underlying profit before tax of $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion. According to The Australian, analysts expected this to be the company's full-year result.
Qantas also expects net debt to drop to between $3.2 billion and $3.4 billion. This is big because it's below the bottom of the target range of $3.9 billion.
These results are largely due to "strong" domestic travel demand and improving international demand.
Qantas said its revenue intakes for business purposes are above 100% of pre-COVID levels. Leisure intakes are above 130%.
The airline expects group domestic capacity to be 94% of pre-COVID levels in Q1 FY23 and 100% in Q2 FY23. Group international capacity is expected to be 61% in Q1 FY23 and 77% in Q2 FY23.
Before the COVID-19 market crash, Qantas hit an all-time high of $7.46 on 20 December 2019.
The Australian says the Bloomberg consensus 12-month target for the Qantas share price is $7.21.
What about other ASX travel shares?
Qantas shares are up 17% in the year to date.
The Air New Zealand Limited (ASX: AIZ) share price is up 2.2% today and down 23% in 2022.
The airline is vastly outperforming other ASX travel sector stocks.
The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price is down 0.07% today and down 18% in 2022.
The Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) share price is up 0.6% today and down 4.6% in 2022.
