After going missing in 2020, FY 2025 has marked the triumphant return of the Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) dividend.
As you'll recall, and most likely none too fondly, 2020 saw the unwelcome arrival of the COVID virus sweep out of China and across the world.
The vast majority of companies took a big hit from the border closures and travel restrictions that followed in an effort to contain the pandemic. And for obvious reasons, S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) travel stocks like Qantas were among the most deeply impacted.
With its fleet grounded, profits evaporating, and share price crashing, the Qantas dividend was suspended in 2020.
And when business and profits began to return a few years later, management opted for share buybacks over dividends.
That strategy has also been partly responsible for the remarkable resurgence of the Qantas share price.
Although shares in the Flying Kangaroo are down 0.2% today at $11.71 apiece, Qantas shares are up 71.2% since this time last year.
And that's not including the FY 2025 interim and final dividends.
Which brings us back to our headline question.
Image source: Getty Images
What's happening with the Qantas dividend?
With business booming, the interim Qantas dividend, paid out on 16 April, consisted of a 16.5 cents per share ordinary dividend and a special dividend of 9.9 cents per share for a total final payout of 26.4 cents per share, fully franked.
When Qantas reported its full-year FY 2025 results on 28 August, the company pleased passive income investors by matching that record interim payout.
FY 2025 saw the airline achieve an 8.6% year-on-year increase in revenue and other income, to $23.82 billion. And on the bottom line, Qantas' underlying profit before tax of $2.39 billion was up 15% from FY 2024.
So once again, management declared a final 16.5 cents per share ordinary dividend and a special dividend of 9.9 cents per share. That equates to a fully franked final Qantas dividend payment of 26.4 cents per share.
And at the current share price, that equates to an instant yield of 2.3%.
But if you want to bank that passive income, the clock is ticking.
Qantas shares trade ex-dividend next Tuesday, 16 September. So you'll need to own shares at market close on Monday to receive that. You can then expect to see that payout hit your bank account on 15 October.
That's the only option you'll have for this final dividend payment, as Qantas' dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) is not in operation for this payout.
