UK long-haul carrier Virgin Atlantic is claiming to have delivered on a plan to return to profitability – counting this as profit before tax and exceptionals – for the first time since 2016.
It achieved a fully-year operating profit of £230 million ($298 million) and pre-tax profit of £19.7 million, prior to exceptional items, for the 12 months to 31 December 2024.
Inclusion of exceptionals left the airline with a net loss of £95 million.
“We started the year with an ambitious but achievable plan,” says chief executive Shai Weiss.
“But it has not been smooth sailing, and we’ve encountered numerous challenges including persistent operational disruptions, wars, and economic uncertainty.”
Weiss says Virgin Atlantic faced availability issues with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s which power its Boeing 787s, and that it had to take “decisive measures to safeguard our operations”.
While it achieved a flight-completion factor of 98.6%, this was down on the previous year’s figure of 99.7%.
“Our operation was significantly impacted by the availability of spare aircraft engines,” says chief financial officer Oliver Byers.
But the carrier nevertheless turned in record revenues of £3.3 billion.
Weiss attributes this partly to demand for premium leisure air travel and holidays, and “growth across all revenue lines”. Passenger revenue of £2.6 billion included £1 billion originating from the USA.
Virgin Atlantic hiked capacity by 7.6% over the year and surpassed the pre-pandemic level of 2019 for the first time since its recovery began.
Weiss says the year was a “turning point” for the airline and the “culmination” of its transformation.
Chair Peter Norris says the airline, which drew up a four-year strategic plan in 2021 as the Covid-19 pandemic was inflicting its damage, has been able to generate sufficient cash to repay around £500 million of Covid-related debt – and will repay “virtually all” the remaining balance this year.
“We have made great progress towards our central ambitions to be the most loved travel company and, crucially, sustainably profitable,” he adds.
