The Virgin Australia Group gave its shareholders a sneak peek of its financial position this week, a month before the airline’s official results are released to the public.
In an ASX update, the company reported a positive cash flow of up to $50 million for the 2017 financial year. This is an improvement of $90-140 million compared to the prior year.
Virgin Australia attributed the positive free cash flow to its “range of balance sheet and free cash flow initiatives”.
As a result of these higher earnings, the group expects to report a higher total cash balance as at 30 June 2017 than as at 31 March 2017.
Meanwhile, the airline’s loyalty program, Velocity Frequent Flyer, managed to exceed eight million members over the 12 months thanks to the program’s new partnerships, new technology and internal resources.
Despite the increase in members, Velocity’s earning before interest and tax (EBIT) for the first half of the 2017 financial year is expected to have fallen by seven percent compared to the prior corresponding period.
However, Velocity’s Segment EBIT performance for the second half of the 2017 financial year is expected to be 10-13 percent higher than the prior corresponding period. For the entire 2017 financial year, Velocity’s Segment EBIT performance will improve by 2-3 percent on the 2016 financial year.
The Virgin Australia Group will report its results for the 2017 financial year on 10 August 2017.