Virgin profits take off

VIRGIN Atlantic shrugged off a fall in bookings and weaker pound to post its third straight annual profit.

The airline, founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1984, had a 75 per cent profit surge at its tour operating arm, Virgin Holidays. Group pre-tax profit rose by £500,000 to £23million on revenue of £2.69billion as the planes of Virgin Atlantic flew 78.7 per cent full, up 1.9 percentage points on the previous year.

Chief executive Craig Kreeger said: “This is due to the hard work of our teams.”