Virgin Australia is proposing to split the company into domestic...

Virgin Australia is proposing to split the company into domestic and international businesses, a move which clearly sets it up for an investment by Etihad Airways.

Virgin Australia to split company, made more ‘real’ money than Qantas in first half

It has also reported a statutory net profit after tax of $51.8 million, meaning that as a much smaller airline, it nevertheless made more ‘real’ money, in statutory terms, than the entire Qantas group, which reported a net profit after tax of $42 million for the same period.

These are the headline financial results filed with the ASX.


Financial highlights
• Improvement in statutory NPAT1, +118% to $51.8m
• Improvement in underlying PBT2, +34.4% increase to $96.1m despite fuel cost increases
• Strong revenue growth +18.4% to $2,006.4m
• Early upside from product and services, and international alliances driving network yield +11.5%
• Strong domestic yield growth +13.7%
• Costs well managed with underlying CASK3 (excl fuel) +4.7% (incl significant product enhancements)
• 10% improvement in operating margins
• Strengthened cash position with $506m in unrestricted cash, total cash balance of $851m

The proposed restructuring depends on the approval of a special distribution of new shares to existing shareholders and will not affect employees or customers in any material way.