Virgin Australia reports biggest ever annual loss

Virgin Australia reported its biggest ever loss for the twelve months ending June.

 

Its post-tax loss of AU$355.6m (£200.5m) was over three times larger than the AU$98.1m loss it reported for the previous year.

 

The airline also announced today that 35 per cent of its frequent flyer programme is being sold to a private equity firm. This will put the programme at a value of AU$960m.

 

It blamed the poor performance on a combination of restructuring and redundancy costs, overcapacity, weak consumer sentiment and carbon tax costs. 

 

Chief executive John Borghetti said: "The 2014 financial year has seen one of the most difficult operating environments in the history of Australian aviation.”

 

It is not the only Australian carrier to report losses for the financial year; yesterday, its direct competitor Qantas reported a net loss of AU$2.8bn (£1.6bn) for the same period.