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Old 11th February 2016, 10:58 AM
Greg Hyde Greg Hyde is offline
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Virgin Australia to remove five Embraer E190s from fleet, reaffirms guidance for full year profit

Virgin Australia says it plans to work its fleet harder in calendar 2016 after announcing the withdrawal of five Embraer E190s, as the airline group reaffirmed a return to profitability for the full 2015/16 financial year.

The 98-seat E190 fleet will be reduced to 13, from 18 currently, by September 2016, Virgin said in its 2015/16 first half financial results on Thursday.

The E190 disposals would be covered through increased utilisation of the airline’s Boeing 737-800 fleet, Virgin said.

Virgin also announced it would sell its six Embraer E170s which were currently sub-leased to alliance partner Delta Air Lines.

And the company said Virgin Australia Regional Airlines’ (VARA) Fokker 50s, which the airline put up for sale in October 2015, will be gone by the end of 2015/16.

The fleet optimisation initiatives were part of the airline group’s cost reduction program, as well helping pay down debt and improve fleet utilisation, Virgin said. The airline is targeting $1.2 billion in cumulative cost savings by the end of 2016/17.

The company has also brought back in-house line maintenance of its ATR turboprops and signed a new engine maintenance contract with Delta Air Lines for the 737 fleet.

As previously disclosed in its second quarter financial results, Virgin posted a welcome return to the black in the six months to December 31 2015 with net profit coming in at $62.5 million, compared with a $47.8 million statutory net loss in the prior corresponding period.

Virgin said it was the strongest net profit result since the first half of 2009/10.

Underlying profit before tax, which removes one-off items and was the airline’s preferred indicator of financial performance, rose to $81.5 million in the half, compared with $10.2 million a year ago.
http://australianaviation.com.au/201...0s-from-fleet/
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