(London) The airline Virgin Atlantic on Monday announced 400 million pounds (676 million Canadian dollars) in fresh funds from Virgin Group and Delta Air Lines, its shareholders, including 200 million from Richard Branson, for deal with the pandemic.
“This investment positions Virgin Atlantic to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in a solid financial position” and to be able to “capitalize on market opportunities when demand returns”, explains the British company in a press release.
The carrier, founded in 1984, anticipates a “return to sustainable profitability from 2023, thanks to the resumption of air travel and more than 300 million pounds in savings”.
In its press release, the company highlights in particular “the reopening of the United States’ borders to the British since November 8, the demand accumulated” since the start of the pandemic and “robust reservations for Easter and summer 2022”.
The Virgin group of billionaire Richard Branson currently owns 51% of the group and has injected 204 million pounds while the American company Delta Airlines, with a share of 49%, put on the table 196 million pounds.
Hit hard like the whole industry by the pandemic, Virgin Atlantic recorded a pre-tax loss of 659 million pounds sterling (1.1 billion Canadian dollars) in 2020, the “most difficult” year of its existence, with a 80% drop in passenger numbers.
The airline specializing in transatlantic journeys, long the flagship of the Virgin nebula, had to be refinanced several times to avoid bankruptcy in the face of the traffic collapse, with a total of 1.5 billion pounds (2.5 billion billion Canadian dollars) injected since the start of the pandemic.