CONTINUED FROM BACK COVER
is a lot more upside to come.” Delta took a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic in 2013. Kreeger declined to give a profit
forecast for 2015 but said: “I expect, by 2018, we can make more on a consistent basis than in our record year.” Virgin Atlantic’s record year was 1999 when it reported a profit of £99 million. Kreeger identified four reasons for the improvement: the pick-up in the economy, the joint venture with Delta, “systematic cost control” saving £25 million a year, and “improved aircraft economics”. The Delta tie-up already sees 10,000 customers a month connect across the airlines’ networks and Kreeger said: “We expect that to grow. “We have one flight a day to Delta’s
Atlanta hub at the moment. In three months, we’ll have four flights a day into Delta hubs. We should really grow the number of connecting customers. I see so much opportunity.” Virgin will launch services from Manchester to Atlanta and Heathrow to Detroit and increase the frequency of its Heathrow-Atlanta flights. It will also add frequencies from Heathrow to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Within four years, all its Heathrow flights will be operated by fuel-efficient 787s. Most Delta flights from Heathrow
operate alongside Virgin at Terminal 3 and the carriers are co-located at New York’s JFK. Kreeger said: “We’re looking for more
ways to find synergies with Delta, some on cost but also on better services.” The lower oil price should also feed
through, although not yet. Kreeger said: “We’re significantly hedged. We didn’t see much benefit from the fall in oil prices at the end of last year and don’t see much in the first quarter of this year. “If the fuel price remains low for a year
then we’ll make considerable savings.” However, he added: “Fares are fares and the fuel price is the fuel price.” Kreeger said: “We’ve done what we
said we’d do and now have the financial wherewithal to invest and grow. “We can see a path to financial success and still be truly Virgin Atlantic. We’re in a really good place.”
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travelweeklybusiness ITB 2015: TripAdvisor insists it’s not becoming an agent, whi
RYANAIR EYES 100M MARK AND REVEALS INTENT TOBEWORLD’S BIGGEST AIRLINE
Ryanair expects to carry 100 million passengers this year and has set its sights on becoming the “world’s biggest carrier” and “the Amazon of travel”. Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs hailed the success of Ryanair’s ‘makeover’ in the past year, saying: “We did a lot of things Ryanair said it would never do.” The airline carried 90 million passengers
last year. Jacobs said: “We changed and it’s backed up by the way we’ve grown.” Speaking at ITB, he said: “We want to become potentially the world’s biggest airline. We carried nine million extra customers [last year] and increased our load factor by 6% – that is 12 additional customers on every flight. But our unit costs stayed flat. “We launched a business product. We
partnered with Travelport and Amadeus on global distribution systems. We’ll further improve the GDS partnership.” He said Ryanair “carried 30% more
traffic” in January and February than a year ago, insisting: “We’re carrying more business travellers. We’re taking market share off all our competitors,
NO-FRILLS CARRIER CONFIRMS INTEREST IN FLYING TO THE US
Irish no-frills carrier Ryanair has firmed up plans to offer flights to the US following years of speculation that it could operate transatlantic services. Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs confirmed: “We’re interested in doing transatlantic flights.” He said Ryanair could operate its own flights under another brand or connect with US airlines flying to Europe. “Low-cost competition on transatlantic flights would be good for Europe,” said Jacobs. “We expect the grip of the [existing] transatlantic carriers to end quite soon. “We’re very interested in it – there is no
reason why we couldn’t [do it] in five years’ time.
“We’re considering our own transatlantic flights, with standard seats and premium economy, probably from 10 airports in Europe and six in the US, with strong frequencies.” Jacobs said services “would not be Ryanair” but under another name. “We’re also looking at doing it with US airlines linking to our network in Europe.” He raised the prospect of “an American airline flying to Cologne to connect with Ryanair flights around Europe”. Ryanair has 320 aircraft and another 380
on order for delivery by 2024, but none are suitable for long-haul operations.
Kenny Jacobs
including easyJet and British Airways. “By the end of this year, we expect the
Ryanair website to be the best of any airline in Europe, with the best mobile app.” Jacobs promised “a new hold-a-fare
feature”, which will allow customers to hold fares for 24 hours for €5, and “our own live fare comparison on our site”. He suggested Ryanair would become “like the Amazon of the travel business”, saying: “We’re going to start selling ancillaries in a more targeted way. We used to sell flights. Now we sell travel and we’re becoming a travel retailer that specialises in flights.”
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