Virgin aims for 10% growth

VIRGIN Atlantic has landed a £20m profit for last year, with chairman Sir Richard Branson bullishly predicting growth of 10% this year.

'To record any sort of profit in this period of trading is impressive,' he said. 'I see positive signs in our revenues. Our passenger numbers are well up while our load factors have been around 90% in recent months.

'More significant is the improvement in passenger yields and signs of recovery in business class. However, yields are still below historic levels while fuel prices are at a 13-year high which means trading remains tough,' said Branson.

The long-haul carrier's £20.9m on turnover of £1.27bn came in the 10 months to end of February, after the year end was changed to put it in line with 49% shareholder Singapore Airlines. Last year, Virgin made profits of £15.7m on turnover of £1.4bn in the year, then at the end of April.

'The last six months has encouraged us to plan to grow our business by around 10% a year,' added Branson.

The results came as London airports group BAA reported strong year-on-year growth during April. Passenger numbers across all its airports rose 15% to 11.4m.

Transatlantic business soared 18% and other longhaul travel rose by 27% on April 2003, when the airline industry was hit hard by the Iraqi war and Sars. European short-haul numbers rose by 19%, driven by the growth of the budget airlines, but also helped by last April's closure of Buzz prior to its takeover by Ryanair.