Virgin is starting Tigerair flights into Bali

Chief executive John Borghetti has forecast a return to profit this financial year following a tumultuous period that saw a major restructuring at Virgin that included the purchase of Tiger Australia.

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Virgin Australia will soon start using Tigerair for flights to Bali from Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Bigger role… Tigerair will commence short haul global flights to Bali in March 2016.

The increased flights across the Tasman and on Pacific routes, planned in conjunction with its alliance partner Air New Zealand, represent more than 52,000 additional seats during the 2016 financial year, the company said in a statement.

Virgin Australia will continue Bali services out of Sydney, Brisbane and Port Hedland.

VIRGIN Australia is overhauling its loss-making worldwide operations as it targets a return to profitability in 2015/16.

Tigerair still needs regulatory approval to fly to Bali using three all-economy Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Challenges ahead… Virgin Australia Group CEO John Borghetti has overseen a major turnaround by the airline, but it still faces considerable challenges.

While Tigerair Australia is fully-owned by Virgin Australia, it has long been absent from the Velocity Frequent Flyer program with travellers unable to earn or redeem points on Tigerair flights.

Virgin said it expected the global business to be profitable by the end of the 2016-17 financial year.

On a stand-alone basis, Tigerair Australia reported an underlying loss before tax of $8.6m versus a loss of $25.8m a year earlier.

Virgin posted an underlying group loss of $49 million for the 2014/15 financial year and a net loss of $93.8 million, which is an improvement on the $353.8 million it lost the previous year. Revenue from the airline’s global division fell 3.3% in the financial year just ended due to increased competition, particularly in the South East Asian routes.

Mr Borghetti said the airline had begun a restructuring of the operations and had introduced business class on its trans-Tasman and Pacific Islands routes that already had shown positive results.

“Our people have demonstrated enormous skill and dedication in their disciplined execution of the Virgin Vision strategy”.