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Intense competition and increased capacity on Australian domestic routes has seen Virgin Australia’s profitability in the first half of the current financial slip by more than a half, so a statutory profit after tax of $23 million and an underlying profit before tax of $61 million.
“Considering the aggressive competition and challenging economic environment, Virgin Australia has delivered a solid financial performance for the first half of the 2013 Financial Year, illustrating the success and resilience of our new operating model,” said Virgin Australia Group CEO John Borghetti.
Virgin explained that the result could in part be attributed to the $24.4 million in carbon tax costs, and noted the same half in the 2011-12 financial year included a direct $6 million “impact” from the Qantas grounding in October 2011.
Said Borghetti: “The Game Change Program strategy has driven improved revenue performance, with revenue growth of 5.4 per cent on the first half of financial year 2012, building on the strong growth of 18.0 per cent that we achieved on the first half of financial year 2011. This revenue growth was also achieved in the context of the highest domestic market capacity increase since the launch of Jetstar in 2004.”
