Virgin Atlantic Reports Losses

Loss comes despite an increase in passengers and revenue, passenger duties and fuel costs blamed.

British airline Virgin Atlantic swung to a full-year loss as higher fuel costs and tough economic conditions took their toll, it said today

The carrier, founded by serial entrepreneur Richard Branson, posted a pretax operating loss of £80.2m in the year to the end of February compared to a profit of £18.5m in 2010/11.

The airline, part owned by Singapore Airlines, said revenues grew 3 per cent to £2.74bn though fuel costs rose a third.

Virgin's passenger numbers rose 2 per cent to 5.4m during the year and its load factor - a measure of how full its planes were - came in at 78 per cent.