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Virgin Blue results to 30 June
Virgin Blue Holdings Limited today reported a net profit after tax of $84 million for the 9 months ended 30 June, 2006, 12.0% up on the previous corresponding period.
Excluding $7 million (after tax) in one-off set up costs related to the Velocity frequent flyer programme, the underlying result of $91 million is up 21%.
Yield improved 2.6%, Passenger Load Factor increased 1.9pts to 77.9%, resulting in an increase in Revenue per Available Seat Kilometre (RASK) of 4.7%. The airline’s costs CASK (Cost per Available Seat Kilometre) increased by 3.4% to 8.02 cents, while CASK excluding fuel reduced by 2.0% to 5.92 cents.
Virgin Blue Chief Executive Officer Brett Godfrey said the increase in profit was a credit to his team.
“Given the difficult trading environment, and in particular punitive current fuel price levels, to have maintained margins in this environment is a pretty fair result,” he said.
“Virgin Blue’s business model has proven resilient during this period, and thanks to the efforts of our entire Virgin Blue team, again we have managed to reduce our controllable unit costs to record levels, and have achieved improved performance despite a $70 million increase in fuel costs, during the period,” he said.
“While it’s early days and the results of initiatives introduced under our New World Carrier strategy are just starting to kick in, we are now better positioned to face the challenges ahead,” he added.
In the past nine months Virgin Blue introduced a series of product initiatives designed to appeal to business travellers which have been achieved without adding undue complexity to the business model.
These included the Velocity frequent flyer programme; the relaunch of lounges at major airports, Web Check-In, new flexible fares for business and Government travellers, completion of new code-share technology and an Application Programme Interface facility for corporate accounts.
Graham Muldoon
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