Qantas Airlines has appointed 11-year company veteran Gareth Evans to assume the position of chief financial officer.

Mr. Evans became the prime candidate of the role after the company announced in March the retirement of its financial officer, Colin Storrie for health and personal reasons. He became the acting CFO since Mr. Storrie stepped down.

Simon Hickey, head of Qantas' loyal program, was also endorsed as the leading candidate for the CFO position.

Mr. Evans has been rendering services to the airlines since 1999, after finishing his post at Caltex and the accountancy firm KPMG. He is also the director of the board of the Qantas-owned travel retailer Jetset Travelworld.

Alan Joyce, Qantas' chief executive, said that Mr. Evan has a "strong airline operation experience across a broad range of functions" aside from his corporate financial skills.

In the past, Mr. Evans' role in Qantas includes scheduling international and domestic network, ticket pricing, revenue management in A380 superjumbos and its activities.

The company said that promoting an internal candidate to the position rather than hiring from the outside is suitable because of the familiarization of the company and the specialized nature of the work.

Meanwhile, Qantas shares today peaked at 6 per cent to $2.45 in the morning.