The Virgin Australia Ltd
(ASX:VAH) share price was trading 5% lower today following the release of an investor presentation.
For context, the broader Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) was trading down 7%.
Who is Virgin Australia?
As is suggested in the name, Virgin Australia Holdings Limited is a holding company for Virgin Australia International Airlines, Virgin Australia Domestic Airlines and also Tigerair Australia. Tigerair was acquired by Virgin in 2015.
Virgin Australia’s ASX update
Less than a week after Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) decided to cancel its share buyback and reduce international flights, today Virgin took its turn in delivering its Coronavirus trading update to investors.
In a statement to the ASX this morning, Virgin said it would respond to the unfolding market conditions by reducing flights and not profit its profit guidance or forecasts.
“We have already announced a number of measures to mitigate the impact from COVID-19, however the pace of the global spread and decline in demand has required us to implement further changes today to minimise the future financial impact,” Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah said.
The company will reduce its domestic capacity by 5% in the second half of FY20. Meanwhile, international capacity will be reduced by 8%.
“As a largely domestic airline, we are less exposed to the impact on international travel, however we remain disciplined in our focus on managing capacity in response to forward bookings and continuing to reduce costs across the business,” Scurrah added.
“It’s worth noting that domestic operations account for 88 per cent of our passengers and 78 per cent of our flight revenue.”
Virgin said its business currently has $1 billion of cash on its balance sheet and added that it has no significant debt due to mature until October 2021.
Considered recent demand changes, Virgin also noted that bookings to some local destinations have increased year over year.
“Pleasingly, our travel bookings to Western Australia and local leisure destinations such as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Hamilton Island continue to be ahead of where they were at the same time last year. This demonstrates Australians are continuing to travel within our own backyard and support local tourism.”
Virgin Australia shares were last seen trading at $0.053, giving the company a market capitalisation more than $500 million according to Morningstar data.
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