Virgin Atlantic Airways declares operational results, reports full-year loss

The flights being operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways have failed to put up a strong showing. The airline recently declared its operational results and said that it had suffered a huge loss.

Virgin Atlantic Airways in a statement said that it had suffered a full-year loss because of tough economic conditions and higher fuel costs.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, founded by Richard Branson and partly owned by Singapore Airlines, has reported a pretax operating loss of $124.5 million (80.2 million Pounds) in the year to the end of February as compared to a profit of $28.98 million (18.5 million Pounds) in 2010-11.

The airline, however, said that the sale of its air tickets was good. According to the airline, its passenger numbers increased 2 percent to 5.4 million during the year. Apart from this, the load factor of Virgin Atlantic Airways was at 78 percent.

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic Airways, said that the market had been quite challenging indeed, and under the circumstances the airline managed to grow top line revenues and carried more passengers than last year.

Ridgway said that the uncertain economic environment, high fuel prices and a 25 percent increase in air passenger duty fees at present has however not been able to convert this sales growth into profits.