The airline had been due to increase domestic capacity in the first half of the year by around 2%, across its main brand and the budget Jetstar subsidiary, but Deutsche Bank recorded May domestic bookings down 15% year on year, which pushed the airline’s share price down 12%.

The airline has also tweaked some of its international services. Sydney-Los Angeles frequencies have fallen from 10 a week to seven in order to use the aircraft on Melbourne-Hong Kong flights instead. The Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth service moves from six a week to daily.

It is the first time for around a year that Qantas has had negative comments from investors, as it performed a remarkable turnaround in 2015 when it recorded record profits after a brutal restructuring.

The latest fall back in demand is blamed on uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming general election in Australia in July.