CANBERRA: Virgin Australia is facing a pre-tax loss of $49 million for the 2014-2015 financial year, based on the latest quarterly numbers which the airline released today.
The airline filed a pre-tax loss of $211.7 million for the previous financial year, so the 2015 figures represent a substantial turn-around as Virgin Australia boosts its performance on the domestic market, enjoys a lower fuel bill due to reduced oil prices and works to constrain costs.
“The results represent a significant year on year improvement in performance for the seasonally weaker June quarter and we expect to see a continued positive trajectory” Virgin Australia CFO Sankar Narayan said in a statement.
Qantas is tipped to showcase an even more dramatic recovery later this month, with the Red Roo soaring back in the black, driven largely by an extensive cost-cutting and ‘transformation’ program applied to the susbtantially larger airline.
The Flying Kangaroo is expected to flag an underlying pre-tax profit close to $1 billion for the same period when the airline opens its books on the 2015 financial year on August 20.
Virgin Australia’s low-cost arm Tigerair Australia is also looking healthier, with pre-tax losses trimmed to just $9.8 million in the March-April 2015 quarter against $25.8 million this time last year.
Virgin Australia is expected to soon hand some of its flights to price-sensitive leisure-oriented destinations such as Bali, Fiji and Phuket over to Tigerair, in what would be the first international flights for Virgin’s low-cost arm.
Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti will report on the airline’s 2014-2015 financial year performance on August 7.
