It's looking like another rough day is in store for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and most ASX 200 shares this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has gone backwards by a painful 1.02%, leaving the index at just above 7,700 points. But let's talk about what's happening with the Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price today.
Qantas shares are also having a day to forget. The ASX 200 airline stock closed at $5.88 a share yesterday afternoon. But this morning, those same shares opened at $5.80 before sinking as low as $5.71 this morning. That was a loss worth a steep 2.9% at the time.
Since then, the Qantas share price has recovered and is now sitting at $5.84 a share. That's down 0.6% for the day thus far.
This wild day for the Qantas share price comes amid some potentially big news for the ASX travel sector this Thursday.
Virgin reportedly in talks with Qatar Airways
As reported by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) today, Qantas' arch-rival Virgin Australia may be potentially welcoming a significant new investor to its ranks. According to the report, Virgin is "negotiating" with the state-owned Qatar Airways for Qatar to buy up a stake in Virgin, perhaps up to 20% of the airline.
Virgin is currently owned by private equity group Bain Capital after the airline was taken off the ASX back in 2020 due to financial pressures resulting from the pandemic. Bain has reportedly been looking for avenues to offload Virgin, including an ASX re-listing and negotiations with Singapore Airlines. But nothing has come to fruition yet.
Qatar Airways already has a somewhat rocky relationship with Australia. Last year, it was embroiled in a saga with Qantas after the Federal Government refused Qatar's request to allow more flights into Australia. Qantas supported the government's decision. However, some in the industry argued that the decision benefitted Qantas' market share in Australia at the expense of customer choice.
It's not too surprising to see the Qantas share price react negatively to this news regarding Virgin though. Virgin has long been Qantas' main rival on Australian soil (or airspace). As such, it's not hard to see why investors are seeing a negative outcome for Qantas from Virgin receiving support from a large player like Qatar. A large player which also happens to be backed by the cashed-up Qatari state.
Qantas share price snapshot
Despite today's negative share price moves, Qantas has had a fairly successful 2024 so far. At current pricing, this ASX 200 airline is up 9.5% year to date.
However, the company remains down by around 2.3% over the past 12 months. It also remains down by just over 12.4% from its last 52-week high that we saw in July last year.
At the current Qantas share price, this ASX 200 airline has a market capitalisation of $9.58 billion.
