SYDNEY, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Australian airline Virgin Australia have posted first half losses on Friday, of 21.5 million dollars (16.54 U.S. million), in a sharp drop for the company after reporting a 62.5 million dollar profit just last year.
The airline blames a corporate restructuring intended to improve practices for the loss, with most of the costs associated with fleet simplification.
Revenue for the beleaguered airline was also down by 24.5 million, to 2.63 billion dollars, which was attributed to lower domestic travel, and the recent Tigerair services shutdown to Bali, as Tigerair are a subsidiary of Virgin, may hurt their revenue even more moving forward.
There were positives, with Virgin managing to slash their net debt position by 936.3 million dollars, while also improving their cash on hand balance by 689.1 million, to now sit at 1.6 billion dollars.
Virgin Australia chief executive officer John Borghetti said despite the slowing down in the domestic market, his company is on the right path after it "strengthened its liquidity" and plans further asset sales.
Borghetti also said the company plans to introduce new routes, with the hope of increasing profitability in the future.
"We will also broaden our international network by launching flights from Australia to Hong Kong, and commencing flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles." Borghetti said.
Virgin Australia will not be paying a dividend to shareholders for the period.
