23 April 2008

Virgin Blue still popular

An Australian report says that Virgin Blue's March operating statistics continued to show strong passenger growth, despite the airline's surprise profit downgrade more than a week ago.

The airline carried 1.5 million passengers in March, up 15.6 per cent on a year ago, and said passenger numbers for the year were up 7.8 per cent to 12.5 million.

March capacity, as measured by available seat kilometres, rose 10.1 per cent as the average number of aircraft in the fleet rose from 52.3 to 60.9.

This was marginally outstripped by a 10.2 per cent increase in traffic, as measured by revenue passenger kilometres, to produce a 0.1 percentage point rise in load factors to 80.8 per cent.

A 6.1 per cent year-to-date rise in traffic and 5.5 per cent rise in capacity produced a 0.5 percentage point increase in load factors for the year to 82.5 per cent.

The average number of aircraft in the fleet increased 9.1 per cent during the same period.

The airline's biggest hit came in on-time performance, which dropped from 88 per cent to 80 per cent during March but improved on February's result.

Virgin revealed on April 11 that its net profit after tax for this financial year would be no more than $100 million, down from $216 million in 2006-07.

The estimate, which includes abnormals of about $40 million associated with new projects such as the start-up of V Australia, represents a fall of about 54 per cent and is also less than half the previous analyst consensus estimate for fiscal 2008 of $207 million.

The airline blamed a combination of rising fuel prices and increased industry capacity for the downgrade, which came as majority owner Toll Holdings said it had been unable to sell its stake in the airline at an acceptable price.

Virgin shares closed down 1c yesterday at 87c.

by: The Mole