A "large increase" in business travel helped Virgin Atlantic more than double its pre-tax profits for the financial year 2005-2006.
Pre-tax profits for the group which includesVirgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Nigeria Airways and tour operator Virgin Holidays, increased from £20.1million to £41.6million.
Virgin said that it also enjoyed record revenues for the year of £1.91bn, a 17% rise on the £1.63bn figure for the previous year.
During the year, Virgin said the number of business travellers rose by 10.9% after the launch of its Upper Class Suite.
Passenger figures for the year for Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Nigeria rose by 11% to 4.9m compared to 4.4m for the year before.
Steve Ridgway, ceo of Virgin Atlantic, said: "Virgin Atlantic's pioneering style of service continues to attract many new travellers.
"Our award-winning service is encouraging more business travellers to switch from other airlines, while the growing list of destinations we serve is ensuring our leisure travellers keep coming back to Virgin Atlantic."
Star building own corporate self booking tool
Star Alliance is building its own self booking tool for its small and medium (SMEs) corporate customers.
The tool could be launched late this year or early in 2007.
It will be part of an enhanced Partner Plus Benefit programme run by Lufthansa, a leading member of Star, and which is aimed at the SME market.
A spokesman for Lufthansa said: "It is right that Lufthansa is thinking about how to advance Partner Plus Benefit for small and medium enterprises in order to raise its attractiveness.
"A possible development could be to integrate a booking functionality linked with the fulfillment via travel agencies."
He said there was "no connection" between the planned new tool and the Alternative Content Access Platform, the common IT platform which Star is building for its 18 members.
The new tool is expected to be compatible with all the major global GDSs and rival similar facilities from companies like KDS, GetThere and e-Travel.
* see BTE's new recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com