Virgin Atlantic Pre-Tax Profit Edges Up

March 28, 2017

Virgin Atlantic posted a profit before tax and exceptional items of GBP£23 million (USD$28.5 million) for 2016, a 2.2 percent increase on the previous year.

The result, up from £22.5 million, was partly due to the strong performance of Virgin Holidays, which made a pre-tax profit of £19.1 million, a 75 percent improvement on 2015.

Revenue for the year came in at £2.69 billion, down from 2015’s £2.78 billion.

Virgin Atlantic carried just under 5.5 million passengers on 21,883 flights at a load factor of 78.7 percent, up 1.9 percentage points.

Passenger traffic in revenue passenger km (RPK) was down 0.1 percent on an available seat km (ASK) capacity reduction of 2.5 percent.

“This was a year in which we faced significant external headwinds, so improving our profit and growing our market share in this challenging environment is testament to the hard work of our teams,” chief executive Craig Kreeger said in a statement.

He said that ongoing deliveries of Boeing 787s and an order for 12 Airbus A350-1000s will see the entire fleet replaced in a decade with younger and more fuel efficient aircraft.

Virgin Holidays had a good year, exceeding its budget targets and posting a 5.3 percent increase in revenue to £606.7 million. The number of inclusive tour holiday passengers was up 4.9 percent at 341,000.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo saw a 1.8 percent increase in tonnage carried but that wasn’t enough to compensate for weaker yields due to overcapacity in the sector.

Looking forward, chief financial officer Tom Mackay said “2017 will be a challenging year due to volatility in the macro-environment. With a weaker pound and excess supply in the market, I anticipate a challenging year for revenues.”

(Airwise)