Virgin Atlantic Group increased its profits by more than £10 million in 2015 thanks to lower fuel prices and a strong performance by Virgin Holidays.
The group, which returned to profit in 2014 after two years in the red, saw its pre-tax profits rise from £12.4m to £22.5 million last year excluding “exceptional” costs.
Virgin Atlantic’s overall group revenue was £2.78 billion although there was a 2.9 per cent fall in airline passenger revenue.
Overall load factor for the airline also dropped by 2.5 percentage points to 76.8 per cent, which the company said was due to “a significant redeployment of capacity” to transatlantic routes where capacity rose by 14.8 per cent.
The airline’s operating costs fell by £196 million year-on-year thanks to a 34 per cent fall in fuel prices last year, although Virgin did not benefit fully from these lower prices due to its existing fuel hedges.
Virgin added that its transatlantic joint venture with Delta had “strengthened further in its second full year”.
Around half of Virgin’s increase in profit came from Virgin Holidays, which raised its pre-tax profit by £5 million to £10.9 million.
Virgin’s CEO Craig Kreeger said: “Having successfully returned to profit, this was the first full year of our four-year plan to deliver long-term success and profitability.
“As we look ahead to a pivotal year in 2016 we will be investing into services and technology to benefit our customers and people, and will continue our £300m million customer experience investment.”
Virgin is currently undergoing a major upgrade to its aircraft fleet and introduced seven Boeing 787 Dreamliners last year.
Chief financial officer Shai Weiss added: “Falling fuel prices reduced our costs but led to a downward pressure on fares, meaning it was a great year for our customers.
“Our fuel hedging programme meant we did not benefit fully from the fall in the price of oil, but our hedging position will continue to unwind and give us significant savings in 2016.”