VIRGIN REVENUE SLUMPS AMID PANDEMIC
THE Covid-19 pandemic pushed Virgin Australia’s passenger revenues down more than 70 per cent for the financial year ending June 30.
The airline, acquired by US private equity firm Bain Capital in November
2020, ended the year with an underlying loss of $76.8m after slashing costs by restructuring and making significant staff redundancies.
The new accounts, filed with the Australian Securities and
Investments Commission, are the first glimpse of how the country’s secondlargest airline has operated under its new owners and during the pandemic.
They show Brisbanebased Virgin claimed $205.4m in the JobKeeper wage subsidy in the 2021 financial year, compared to $80.5m a year earlier. Virgin’s larger rival, Qantas, claimed $856m in JobKeeper payments in the financial year.
Domestic passenger and freight revenue fell from $2.6bn in 2020 to $983.3m, and international sales from $966.2m to just $8m.
Virgin managing director Jayne Hrdlicka said it was “unclear what the ongoing implications from Covid-19 will be for the group’s results in future financial years”.
“The group is anticipating a swift and significant ramp-up in travel demand from customers in line with border restrictions easing, and as Australians come to live with Covid circulating in the community,” Ms Hrdlicka said.
“The group will adjust capacity in the market back up to meet this demand and is well positioned to do so,” she said, also noting that international flying continued to remain part of the group’s strategy.
The previously ASXlisted Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in April last year with debts of $6.8bn.