Commercial carrier Qantas Airways believes it will see a profit during the initial half of 2009/10 as customer numbers increase and yields rise in the aftermath of the economic downturn.

The encouraging prospects have enticed the carrier to boost its capacity on its mainline operations starting on March 2010.

The airline group has revealed that it’s expecting a before tax profit for the half year leading to December 31, 2009 of between $50 million and $150 million.

This would mark a definite improvement over the loss of $107 million it experienced during the second half of 2008/09, despite being significantly lower than the pre-tax profit recorded during the previous equivalent period $288 million.

Qantas said through a statement that operating conditions saw an improvement in comparison to the second half of 2008/09, with increases in both passenger volumes and improving yields.

Qantas revealed that domestic and international flight yields had fallen respectively by 8.9 per cent and 23.2 per cent, during the 2009/10 financial year up to November over the previous corresponding period.

However, an improvement had been seen over the month before. Yields are an indication of the average cost of a ticket.

According to the carrier, caution still had to exercised due to high levels of volatility remaining in the various components of the industry such as capacity, passenger demand, fuel prices, the economic outlook and exchange rates.

Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive, revealed the carrier is planning to add around 340,000 seats on domestic routes, thus bringing back numbers to pre-recession levels.

Qantas offspring Jetstar also announced good news recently. The carrier is expecting to introduce 77 additional flights by July 2010, boosting its capacity by about 700,000 seats.

This November, the entire passenger numbers at the Qantas group has experienced a jump of 9.7 percent compared to the same period a year ago.