Profitable Virgin Australia Gets it Right
By investing in its business class – as well as lucking out on weather – Brisbane-based Virgin Australia has posted a net profit of AU$22.8 million for the year, the Wall Street Journal revealed today.
Australia’s second-largest carrier has spent the past several months going head-to-head with the Flying Kangaroo as both airlines battled for the top spot on the profitable domestic travel market. Thanks in part to some key alliances forged between Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways and Air New Zealand, the company has hit its 20 per cent domestic revenue target a year ahead of schedule.
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The victory is also due to Virgin Australia’s chief executive John Borghetti, formerly of Qantas, pushing for business-class seats on domestic flights.
"Our progress in attracting higher yielding corporate and government customers has been a key driver of our improved profitability," said Borghetti in a statement.
According to News, Virgin is also hoping to add an extra $150 million in interline and codeshare revenue by 2014/15 after more than doubling the figure in 2011/12.
Qantas Airwayshas suffered bouts of bad luck including a two-day grounding of the fleet that, many suspect, sent many passengers to Sir Richard Branson’s airline. The company reported an AU$245 million dollar annual profit loss last week and then cancelled an order for a new fleet of 35 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
According to Inquirer News, it was the first time since the company went private in 1995 that the carrier reported a net loss.
