SIR Richard Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, soared into profit last year – despite disruption caused by the first Icelandic volcanic ash cloud crisis.
The carrier made a pre-tax profit of £18.5m in the 12 months ending in February compared with a loss of £132m the previous year.
Virgin said the figure was achieved despite the ash cloud crisis costing the airline £40m. Revenues rose by 13% to £2.7bn.
The company also said that its revenue for March to May was £658m – a 7.6% increase on the same period last year.
Virgin said it was investing £100m in product development after demonstrating “the resilience of our business”.
