Qantas has returned to paying company tax after posting a record profit and absorbing the losses of previous years.

The national airline has recorded an underlying profit of $1.6 billion, with its full-year net profit up 15 per cent despite a rise in jet fuel prices.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says the losses accumulated four years ago, when the company was facing strife, have been absorbed and they have started paying company tax again.

“The way the tax system works on company tax is that you have time to digest the losses in a particular year and the investments you’re making, so it’s spread over time,” he tells Ross Greenwood.

“We did lose… $2.8 billion in 2013 and it’s taken us a few years to go through those losses and digest them.

“But we were paying a range of other taxes.

“We will be paying (company) taxes again in this financial year and ongoing, given the high levels of profitability the company is experiencing.”

Click PLAY below to listen to the full interview with Alan Joyce

When it comes to the chaos in Canberra, Mr Joyce says the economy is doing well in the short-term but continued uncertainty will do long-term damage.

“Having a policy vacuum, not having energy policy, not having a tax policy, not having uncertainty in the leadership, will create uncertainty in the marketplace.

“We need this to be resolved and we need certainty to be brought back to politics.”