Virgin say they will look at the viability of all their routes after a shock financial announcement on Wednesday which will lead to huge job losses.
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Virgin Australia is planning to cut seven percent of its workforce, many based in Brisbane head office, to slash $75 million a year in costs, as it seeks to rebound from a $349 million full-year loss.
Incredibly that figure is smaller than last year's net loss of $681 million last year however its underlying performance was substantially worse.
The company's underlying loss before tax of $71.2 million compared to a profit of $64.4 million in 2018.
The company is blaming poor trading conditions in the second half of the financial year, rising fuel and foreign exchange costs and increased operational costs.
Cost cutting will see a merge of its corporate and operational functions of its domestic, regional and Tigerair operations with 750 job losses to save $75m a year.
Of particular concern to North West Queensland is the possibility the airline may review its routes.
Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah said they were reviewing fleet, network and capacity levels in order to manage costs and meet weaker market demand.
"We intend to further reduce flying across elements of our short-haul international and our domestic network to match our strategic positioning and the market conditions as well as to maximise route profitability," Mr Scurrah said.
We intend to further reduce flying across elements of our domestic network
- Paul Scurrah
"As we go through this process, we'll look at what it is required that gets us into that profitability and we'll make the right decisions, as tough as they might be, to make sure we get there."
Last week Virgin refused to match Qantas in providing a residents' fare scheme in remote and regional areas nor would they cap their fares as Qantas did last week.
In February Virgin told the Senate regional air fares Inquiry there were substantial challenges that has caused them to exit or reduce frequency on some regional markets due to sustained poor commercial performance.
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