Virgin Blue's long-haul offshoot V Australia reported negative earnings before interest and tax of $7.4 million in the first half of 2010/11, an improvement from negative EBIT of $24.2 million in the prior year.
V Australia is starting to gain traction.
QF: Underlying pre-tax profit rose 56 per cent to $417 million.
But the Qantas group absolutely smashes the Virgin group in this area. Virgin pre tax was LESS than the previous year.
I guess 2011 is the rebuild year. 12 and 13 might be the years to watch. Again in my opinion this is all dependant on oil price and deep pockets. QF might even wish in a weird way for the price to go up as virgin invest heavily in rebuilding the brand. I think the V Australia numbers are ominous ones for QF International.