The Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price hit the afterburners in the financial year just past.
On 28 June 2024, the last trading day of FY 2024, you could have picked up shares in the Flying Kangaroo for $5.85 each.
On Monday, the last trading day of FY 2025, shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) airline stock closed the day changing hands for $10.74 apiece.
This put the Qantas share price up an impressive 83.6% over the full financial year.
But in case you're thinking there may be a typo in our headline figure, there's not.
That's because FY 2025 also saw the return of the long missing Qantas dividend, which was suspended in 2020 amid the COVID pandemic and the ensuing global lockdowns.
With revenues and profits surging, management declared a fully franked interim dividend of 26.4 cents per share. Eligible stockholders will have seen that welcome passive income hit their bank accounts on 16 April.
So, if we add that dividend back into Monday's closing price, then the accumulated value of Qantas shares bought for $5.85 at the end of FY 2024 works out to $11.004 at the end of FY 2025.
That's a gain of 88.1%. Or enough to turn a $7,000 investment into $13,167 in just one year.
What went right for the Qantas share price in FY 2025?
The Qantas share price caught a lot of tailwinds in the financial year just gone.
Those included strong domestic travel demand and an ongoing increase in international travel demand amid historically high ticket prices.
The airline also benefited from lower fuel costs as the global oil price came off the boil.
As you'd expect, jet fuel counts among the biggest costs of running an airline.
And for the first half of FY 2025, Qantas noted that its "total unit cost decreased 4% with a favourable fuel price environment, transformation activity offsetting CPI and the benefit of additional capacity".
Management also noted, "A favourable fuel price environment in the first half 2024/25 was a key driver in the decrease of $132 million in fuel costs compared to first half 2023/24."
In addition to the return of the Qantas dividend, other highlights from H1 FY 2025 results included a 9% year-on-year increase in revenue to $12.13 billion and a 6% increase in net profit to $923 million.
What's happening with the ASX 200 airline stock in FY 2026?
Just a few hours into the second trading day of FY 2026, the Qantas share price stands at $10.36.
That's down 3.5% in the new financial year, with shares closing up 0.2% on Tuesday and down 3.7% in intraday trade this morning.
Today's selling pressure looks to be driven by news of a major cybersecurity breach that may have compromised the data of several million Qantas customers.
The incident is currently under investigation.
