Virgin Atlantic has reported a third successive year of profit, with much of the success attributed to its tour operating division, Virgin Holidays.
For the year ended December 31 2016, the Virgin Atlantic Group achieved a profit before tax and exceptional items (PBTEI) of £23 million, up £500,000 year-on-year.
Total group revenue was £2.69 billion, while load factor was up 1.9 percentage points, to 78.7%.
Cargo revenue declined 15.9% year on year, but Virgin Holidays achieved a PBTEI of £19.1 million. This represents a 75.2% increase on the previous year, through higher passenger volume and margin.
Virgin Holidays increased its departed passenger volumes by 4.9%, arranging 341,000 holidays.
Virgin Atlantic chief executive Craig Kreeger said: "This was a year in which we faced significant external headwinds, so improving our profit and growing our market share in this challenging environment is testament to the hard work of our teams.
"We remained focused on our customers, with the second year of a three year £300m investment programme, and delivered our best ever year operationally."
Virgin Holidays managing director David Geer said: "We’re delighted to have achieved another strong year of improved performance, while continuing to deliver better holiday experiences to even more customers.
"This was both a fantastic effort from the entire Virgin Holidays team, and a confirmation of the success of our decision to move to a direct-sale only model.
"We are looking forward to another successful year ahead."
