Virgin Atlantic warns of signs of slowdown in the demand for flights

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Virgin Atlantic has reported a profit for the first time since the epidemic, but has warned of early signs of slowing the demand for via Atlantic flying from American consumers.

The airline, owned by the majority of the Virgin Branson Group, on Monday, reported an annual profit before the exceptional taxes and items of 20 million pounds of 2024, an increase of a loss of 139 million pounds in the previous year.

The airline informed the last profit in 2016. It was the slower recovery from the epidemic of its largest competitors such as British Airways in British Airways, which made record profits for two years based on the high demand for travel across the Atlantic, especially the most expensive seats.

“The year 2024 was a turning point for Virgin Atlantic,” said CEO, Shay Weiss.

Like BA, it relies heavily on high -end Atlantic roads between the United States and Europe.

Oli Bayers, Financial Director Virgin Atlantic If “I started seeing some of the signals that the US request slowed” over the past few weeks. “We believe this is a natural reaction to the general uncertainty of the consumer,” he said.

Bayers added that the declines were from a high base, and the airline is still hoping to increase its revenues from US reservations in 2025.

The arrows in Iag decreased by 5 percent after Virgin Atlantic’s comments.

Analysts have wondered whether it could hit the overwhelming -Atlantic mutation in the United States, as well as tensions between the United States and Europe, including customs tariffs.

The largest US Airlines warned this month of The slowdown in the local demandBut he said that he has not spread on international flights yet.

Last week, the CEO of three long flight groups in Europe, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa-they are watching the reservation patterns, but they have not seen a decrease in demand for travel via Atlantic.

“It is anxiety for us … but starting today, we do not see any physical change in reservations forward,” said Bin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM on Thursday.

Barclays analysts estimated that the Atlantic roads are responsible for more than half of the profits before the benefits, taxes and dictation of the three airlines, and they warned this month that the slowdown in the US local market may spread.

They added that the tensions between the United States and Europe could lead to fewer people who choose to cross the Atlantic Volume for holidays.

“We realize that this invitation may be early. We only hear confidence about the Atlantic Ocean of airlines so far. However, we still believe that a circulating environment in the northern Atlantic Ocean is likely to appear soon,” analysts said.

The Virgin Atlantic recovery was slowed down by the cost of serving more than one billion pounds in the debts that took it to survive. Unlike many of its competitors, government funds have been refused.

Virgin Group owns 51 percent of the airline, while the group of 49 percent of the American Delta Air Lines collection.

Virgin Atlantic recorded record revenues of 2.6 billion pounds in 2024, an increase of 179 million pounds on an annual basis. The capacity of the seat increased by 8 percent and informed “the continued demand for excellent business and entertainment.”

The airline said that its four -year plan is “sustainable”, which was launched in 2022, and is scheduled to end in December, was working.