News
Virgin Australia posts $32 million interim net profit and sells E170 fleet
February 19th 2016
Qantas Airways rival, Virgin Australia Holdings, last week posted a A$45.7 million ($32.4 million) net profit for the first half ended December 31, which reversed a net loss of A$53.1 million in the corresponding year-ago period. Read More »
Virgin’s no-frills offshoot, Tigerair Australia, acquired from Singapore-listed Tiger Airways Holdings in 2014, swung to a $62.5 million first-half profit from a previous-year $47.8 million loss, in its best half-year result since commencing operations.
"All fundamental business metrics are in place for the group to report a profit for the 2016 financial year," Virgin Australia CEO, John Borghetti, said in a statement, and added an increased mix of business and government travellers had boosted Virgin’s average fares in the first half, while Tigerair had benefited from product improvements at Melbourne Airport and its better on-time performance compared with rival Jetstar.
To continue to reduce costs and streamline operations, Virgin said it planned to sell its fleet of six E170s (on sublease to Delta Air Lines) as well as five of its 18 E190s, before the end of the current financial year. Borghetti said lost capacity would be compensated with improved B737 utilization.
