Virgin Australia Holdings has made an investment in Skywest Airlines “in order to capitalise on opportunities in regional Australia by supporting further growth of VAH and Skywest’s regional partnership”, the airline said.
Virgin Australia would own approximately 10% of Skywest on a fully diluted basis should the investment and associated rights be converted to equity.
Virgin Australia chief financial officer Sankar Narayan said, “This investment highlights our belief in the growth potential of the Australian regional market and strengthens our partnership with Skywest.
“We have grown our regional operations significantly since launching our regional network with Skywest in October 2011. These services have been highly popular with the flying public and are already among our best performing regional routes.
“The fleet of four new ATR aircraft that we are using to operate these services will increase to 12 by the end of the 2013 financial year, and there is plenty of opportunity to further expand our regional footprint,” Narayan said.
