Virgin Atlantic warns on signs of slowdown in US demand for transatlantic flights

Virgin Atlantic has reported a profit for the first time since the pandemic, but warned of early signs of a slowdown in demand for transatlantic flying from US consumers. The airline, which is majority owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, on Monday reported an annual profit before tax and exceptional items of GBP20mn for 2024, up from a loss of £139mn a year earlier. The airline last reported a profit in 2016. It has been slower to recover from the pandemic than its biggest rivals such as British Airways owner International Airlines Group, which has had two years of record profits built on high demand for travel across the Atlantic, particularly the most expensive seats. “2024 was a turning point for Virgin Atlantic,” said CE Shai Weiss. Like BA, it is highly reliant on lucrative transatlantic routes between the US and Europe. Oli Byers, CFO, said Virgin Atlantic had “started to see some signals that US demand had been slowing” over the past few weeks. “We think that is quite a natural reaction to general consumer uncertainty,” he said. Byers added that the declines were from a high base, and the airline still hoped to increase its revenue from US bookings in 2025.  IAG shares closed down about 7% following the comments from Virgin Atlantic. Analysts have questioned whether the boom in transatlantic flying could be hit by the worsening economic picture in the US, as well as tensions between the US and Europe, including over tariffs. The biggest US airlines warned this month of a slowdown in domestic demand, but said it had not spread to international trips yet. Last week the CEs of Europe’s three biggest long-haul airline groups — IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa — said they were monitoring booking patterns, but had not seen a decline in demand for transatlantic travel.<br/>