27/05/2005

Virgin Atlantic announce profits increase

Virgin Atlantic Airline has revealed a substantial increase in profits ending February 2005, and has announced plans to add two new routes in 2006.

The results show a pre-tax profit of £68 million on a turnover of £1.630 billion which is the highest figure since 1999.

The new routes planned are from Dubai and Montego Bay to Jamaica, in addition to route launches in 2005 to Mumbai, Havana and Nassau.

Commenting on the results Virgin's Chairman Sir Richard Branson said: “In a challenging year when many leading players in the airline industry continued to struggle to survive I am very pleased and proud that Virgin Atlantic has recorded healthy increases in both turnover and profit. This has been down to the dedication and professionalism of all our staff over the year and the introduction of the award winning Upper Class passengers so increasing our load factor. Rising oil prices undid some of our good work and as a long haul airline we are harder hit than our rivals.”

During the financial year Virgin Atlantic added three new Airbus A340-600 aircraft bringing the total fleet to 31. In August 2004, the airline announced an order for up to 26 more A340-600's, worth $5.5 billion. A long-standing ambition to operate services to Australia was fulfilled in December when services between Hong Kong and Sydney were launched and extra flights were added to Delhi and Shanghai.

(CD/SP)

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