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Virgin to add Dubai and Jamaica flights
Virgin Atlantic is to add routes to Dubai and Jamaica next year on the back of its best profits performance in five years.
Results for the airline group – which includes tour operator Virgin Holidays and its cargo arm – showed a pre-tax profit of £68 million in the year to February 28, 2005 on turnover of £1.6 billion. This was against profits of £20.9 million and turnover of £1.2 billion in the 10 months to February 29, 2004. The results were the best since 1999.
The airline increased passenger carryings by one million to 4.4 million over the previous period while Virgin Holidays’ turnover grew from £314 million to £407 million.
Virgin is planning further expansion with the launch of services between Heathrow and Dubai in April 2006 and Gatwick and Jamaica from July 2006. Services between Heathrow and Mumbai will rise from three a week to daily from December 2005.
The first flight of the group’s African off-shoot, Virgin Nigeria Airways, is due to operate soon, according to chairman Sir Richard Branson.
Virgin admitted that the operating environment had continued to challenge airlines with overcapacity on routes across the North Atlantic, soaring fuel prices and slow economic recovery.
Branson said: “Rising oil prices undid some of our good work and regrettably we were left with no option but to introduce fuel surcharges from May 2004, although these only recovered about one third of the £60 million extra costs we faced over the year.”
However, he revealed that the 8,118 staff would receive an annual profit-related bonus for the third year running due to a “great operation performance” and cost control.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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