12 March 2015 | travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY


GOES BACK TO BLACK


VIRGIN


Craig Kreeger: ‘A


£14 million profit is not sufficient for a carrier of our size . . . but we can see a path to financial success’


VIRGIN ATLANTIC


CELEBRATES ITS 30TH BIRTHDAY WITH A


RETURN TO PROFIT. CHIEF EXECUTIVE CRAIG KREEGER


SPOKE TO IAN TAYLOR


Virgin Atlantic has announced a return to profit, fulfilling chief executive Craig Kreeger’s pledge to turn the company around when he took over two years ago. The carrier reported pre-tax


profits of just over £14 million for the year to December 2014, buoyed by the first year of its transatlantic joint venture with Delta Air Lines. It had lost £51 million in 2013 and £102 million in 2012.


78 • travelweekly.co.uk — 12 March 2015


Chief executive Craig Kreeger said: “We are confident we’ll be more profitable than ever before by 2018.” Kreeger told Travel Weekly:


“We started a two-year recovery plan [aiming] to be profitable in 2015, improve our customer- service ratings and improve our employee engagement. Now, all our attention is turned to growth. “A £14 million profit is not


sufficient for a carrier of our size, but a lot of things that have improved our figures have only just kicked in. We flew only one Boeing 787 [from October] last year – we’ll have nine by the end of this year and, by the end of 2018, we’ll have replaced half of our fleet. “We’ve just finished year one of our joint venture with Delta. There


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