Originally Posted by
LTNman
They have been losing money for years so the first question is did Manchester make a profit for Virgin?
Focusing on the last 5 years specifically given the changes that have been made since Mr Ridgway stepped down, VS made a profit in 2014/15/16 and made a loss in 2017 and 2018 (I suspect VS were burnt by Brexit weakening GBP against USD given their reliance on the US market and certain costs being in USD). 2019 is yet to be published, but for what it's worth there was a plan to restore to profitability by 2021 which, given recent events, is going to be difficult to achieve this year alone and clearly needs redoing.
As for MAN, they've been there since the mid-90's, have grown there presence over the last 5 years in particular and a Clubhouse is on the way this year. Given routes were axed under Craig Kreeger but MAN remain unscathed except for Little Red and saw more routes added, I would suggest MAN was profitable and it would be interesting to see whether the impending withdrawal of the 747's and the introduction of A330neo's and A350's on MAN routes would have a positive impact on the profitability of the MAN operation. I know loadings doesn't necessarily reflect profitability, but every time in the last 6 years I've flown on a VS long-haul flight to/from MAN it's been very well loaded - the lowest loadings was around 85%, the highest was only a single figure of seats being free on the whole aircraft.
If VS survives, I'm curious to see what shape or form the MAN operation will look like.