The Virgin Atlantic Group has announced pre-tax profits of £22.5 million for the year to December 31, 2015.
The figure is up 81 per cent on the previous year, with Virgin Holidays contributing nearly half of the overall profit figure at £10.9 million.
The group said it had strengthened its joint venture partnership with Delta, with nearly 400,000 connections between the two carriers last year, and a 37 per cent market share of flights between Heathrow and interior US destinations (ie: those without a direct UK service).
Costs at constant currency rates fell by £196 million, largely due to the fall in fuel prices.
Commenting on the results Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Craig Kreeger said:
“We achieved these improved results in a year in which we also transformed our business and network, laying the foundations for a robust and enduring Virgin Atlantic. Having successfully returned to profit, this was the first full year of our four-year plan to deliver long-term success and profitability.
"We remained focused on our customers and it is a testament to our people that our satisfaction scores have continued to improve - I want to thank them for the tremendous work they do, every day.
“As we look ahead to a pivotal year in 2016 we will be investing into services and technology to benefit our customers and people, and will continue our £300m million customer experience investment. This year will see a new Passenger Service System, more new Boeing 787-9 aircraft arriving, a wifi rollout and a retrofitting programme on our Airbus A330-300 fleet.”
CFO Shai Weiss said the group was “confident that moving forward we have the right fleet, network and partners in place to be more profitable than ever before by 2018”.
Mark Caswell
