Virgin Blue passengers up 29 per cent

[Wirraway]

AAP

Virgin Blue passengers up 29 per cent
November 30, 2004 - 1:29PM

Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd reported passenger numbers were up 29 per cent in October compared to the same month last year.

The discount carrier's preliminary operating statistics for October found Virgin Blue carried 1,166,757 passengers in October compared to 904,532 last year.

It also found traffic, measured by Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), increased by 32.5 per cent in the same period.

Capacity, measured by Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) also increased by 38.3 per cent.

Revenue load factor decreased by 3.6 points to 80.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

The carrier's on time performance in October stood at 82 per cent of flights leaving within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time.

In a statement the company said for the seven months to October 2004 passenger numbers increased by 37.1 per cent from the previous year.

RPKs jumped 42.2 per cent, while ASKs increased by 54.5 per cent over the same period.

Revenue load factor decreased by 6.7 points to 77.3 per cent compared to the previous year.

On time performance stood at 87 per cent.

© 2004 AAP
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[Wirraway]

Wed "Sydney Morning Herald"

Virgin Blue starts to fill those extra seats
By Scott Rochfort
December 1, 2004

Concerns over the rapid expansion of Virgin Blue's fleet of Boeing 737s abated yesterday after the airline reported better-than-expected operating statistics for October.

Since shocking the market in May with the release of poor traffic data, Virgin continued to narrow the gap in the percentage of seats it filled for the month compared to the previous year.

In contrast to the 12.4 percentage point gap reported earlier in the year, Virgin reported its October load factor of 80.1 was only 3.6 percentage points behind last year, despite the airline having added 11 planes since then.

Virgin Blue's head of communications, David Huttner, declined to say if the airline felt vindicated by the latest statistics.

"What we've said all along is that we've strategically added a lot of capacity, and we always said it would take some time to absorb - and that's what's happening," he said.

After suffering a declining share price and criticism in some quarters for the rapid expansion of its fleet for much of this year, Mr Huttner said the decision - which has expanded Virgin's fleet to 50 aircraft - was part of a long-term strategy for the airline to snare as much of the domestic aviation market as possible.

"We made a move at a time Qantas wasn't able to respond," he said, adding the airline had maintained its 33 per cent share of the market through the year.

But analysts remained cautious, given Virgin's monthly data does not include yield and revenue data - in other words, data on how profitable it is.

Virgin shares rose 2c to $2.06. Qantas shares meanwhile hit a 14-month high of $3.60 before closing 3c higher at $3.58 in the lead-up to the airline's inclusion in the MSCI Australia index after yesterday's close of trade.

The inclusion was prompted by British Airways' sale of its remaining 18.25 per cent stake in the airline in September, which effectively freed up more of Qantas's share base.

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[Cornholeeo]

up 29 per cent in October compared to the same month last year. The rednecks and other assorted bogunry have obviously been doing well on the pokies lately.

[wirgin blew]

Johnny had to buy his votes somehow. Maybe the senate enquiry into rural vote buying will reveal all

LMAO