Executive Summary
This report analyses Virgin Australia (ASX code VAH) and identifies its potential business and audit risks that will need to be addressed in the 2014 audit. It is presented to the Virgin Australia Audit Committee as part of the 2014 Audit planning process.
The first part of this report provides a broad introduction into the business of Virgin Australian by examining its principal sources of revenue, its nature of operating, its competitors, the market share and the regulations affecting its operations. From this, it can be seen that Virgin Australia operates in a very competitive environment and generates revenue by the core business of passenger and cargo transport.
The second part of this report analyses the
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Airport Lounges - Virgin Australia provides airport lounges at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Mackay and Gold Coast domestic airports. Designed for frequent travelers, entry is by membership only.
Velocity Rewards - Virgin Australia's loyalty program that allows points to be used to purchase airline travel, hotel nights, car hire, online shopping and charitable donations.
Freight - Virgin Australia offers domestic and international freight services to its customers, including same day and overnight express, perishable cargo, dangerous goods and animal transport services.
The diagram is company’s every week flights, and we can observe it directly.
1.3 Competition Analysis
Virgin Australia is facing competition from both international market and domestic market.
The major competitor is Qantas Airways Limited which is the largest airline in Australia base on the number in fleet. Qantas has 244 aircrafts and Virgin Australia has 128 aircrafts according to Australian civil aircraft register search on ‘Civil Aviation Safety Authority’ on January 2014.
Domestic market Virgin Australia, including Tiger Australia (Virgin owns 60% of Tiger now), occupies 35% of the domestic market share in Australia, and its major competitor Qantas, including its subsidiary Jetstar, accounts for a majority of 61% of the domestic market share in January 2014.Qantas (QF) has grown by 18% over 5 years (Jan 2008 vs. Jan 2014) while Virgin Australia
In the local region, Qantas managed to outweigh its competitor by gaining a toll of 65% compared to its competitor. Evidently this shows Qantas is the number one preferred airlines compared to other competitor airlines like Virgin, Tiger Airways and Emirates airlines. However the situation is not the same in South East Asian region as Qantas only managed to obtain about 15% of market share compared to likes of Air Asia who leads the market share with 60% in this region. Conversely, this is not a concern for the airlines as the airlines managed to generate revenue of 5 billion dollars, with a predicted passenger growth of 4.9% which is equivalent to 2.9 billion passengers by 2034.
For approximately the past 20 years, since the deregulation of the Australian Aviation industry, the Australian Domestic Market has been profitable. The past half year has brought to light the first negative effects of fierce competition between Australia's airlines the Qantas group and Virgin Australia Holdings Pty Ltd (VAH) (which will be further referred to in this document as Virgin Australia) in the form of loss which can be seen in the below figure.
Nevertheless, besides these threats, there are also opportunities in the industry, which could be exploited by Virgin. These opportunities are that the aging population is likely to increase demand for retirement services in Canada, the fast growing online banking demand and the positive outlook for Canada 's economic prospects.
Virgin Australia is an airline for corporate, regional and leisure market segments and is the second largest airline in Australia. This airline has become a highly regarded global brand name that has a broad appeal to all consumers in a mass-market environment in revolutionising airline travel. (Virgin Australia, 2015)
Through a Guest's journey and Guest Contact Centre, Virgin’s had promoted their Velocity Frequent Flyer program to customers (Virgin Australia Annual Financial Report 2014, 133). This type of plan was offered from company's long-term customers, providing the most preferential journey for them which rewarded their loyalty to the company. Furthermore, Virgin's had launched a 'High Flyer Passport', which designed to recognize Australia's youngest flyers (MediaNet Press Release Wire 2014). Virgin's addition to considering individual's goals and interests, but also they had an emphasis on the welfare of the stakeholders.
Virgin Australia's Diversity furthermore, Inclusion Strategy is intended to bolster individuals to be taking care of business paying little mind to their experience or individual circumstances. In 2015, we kept on actualizing activities which advance an comprehensive work environment including the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Week. This included multicultural festivities and the dispatch of
This provides Virgin Australia with a positive outlook of the future. The international sector of Virgin Australia during financial year 2015 was not so forgiving with a loss of $68.9 million. This was $22.8 million worse than the previous year. The domestic sector has improved greatly however the international sector has fallen into a loss larger than the previous year. Virgin Australia international improved by $2.4 million after making some minor changes to international business class. The operating cash flow of $218 million has improved by $226 million from previous year. Moreover, domestic unit revenue has improved by 3.5%, cost savings target for financial year 2017 has increased by $0.2 billion from financial year 2014. The closing cash balance of $1.03 billion signifies the improvement from financial year 2014. Yield has grown by 5.2% over the past financial year. The outlook statement, as quoted directly from the ASX Virgin Australia Financial year 2015 Results Presentation, states that “based on current market conditions, all fundamental business metrics are on track for the Group to return to profitability and report a Return on Invested Capital in line with its cost of capital for the 2016 financial year.” Virgin Australia is planning to improve their fleet and meet customer’s needs by improving their international network.
Flight Centre describes itself as a global discount flight specialist. Taking into consideration the relative size of the Australian and international operations as well as the availability of information on global environment and competitive factors, for this analysis, it is more appropriate to consider the Flight Centre’s industry environment as “The Australian international and domestic airline
Virgin Australia which was formerly called Virgin Blue is the Australia’s second largest airline. The airline was started in 2000 by British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson and former Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey. The airlines started as low-cost carrier, but went on to become a “new-world carrier” (Virgin Blue media release, 2011). This low cost airline went on to become a full-service airline by 2012 with the name of Virgin Australia. Since the year 2000 the airlines grew rapidly and posed threat to Qantas airline and over the years Virgin Blue looking at the marketing trends and characteristics of the aviation industry grew into a Full Service Airline and is considered a four star airline by research consultancy firm Skytrax.
The Australian domestic airlines industry operations usually consist of transportation of freight and passengers domestically (IBISWORLD, 2010). The industry has been experiencing slightly negative annual revenue growth of negative 0.4% for the past five years (IBISWorld, 2010). The domestic airlines industry consist of two major players such as Qantas Airways and Virgin Blue, and three minor players such as Regional Express, Skywest and Tiger Airways (IBISWorld, 2010).
The purpose of this report was to provide a strategic evaluation of the company Virgin Australia. The report begins by conducting a strategic analysis of Virgin, including an analysis of the external environment and an internal analysis of competitive strengths and weaknesses. The report then identifies the strategic direction and objectives of Virgin Australia, including the vision, mission, strategic objectives and stakeholders of the company. The report moves on to explore strategic choices of Virgin Australia by identifying the key broad business level and
The biggest challenge facing any new entrants and Virgin Blue is competing with the brand identification of Qantas and the following that they have from the Australian public. When Virgin Blue first entered the market they were also competing with Ansett for customers and since the collapse of Ansett, Virgin Blue and Qantas had to compete for their customers. Qantas has established a frequent flyer program to keep
Virgin Australia is Australia’s second largest domestic airline, commenced in operations back in 2000 as a low-cost carrier (LCC) and has successfully survived in the market. Major shareholders include Air New Zealand, Singapore Airline and Etihad Airways. The airline rebranded in 2011 as a part of their 5-year turnaround
Pratap (2017) The attractiveness of Virgin Atlantic is affected by a number of factors. Within the 21st century, the airline industry has been growing frequently and in demand. In spite of the speedy growing world economy, there are a number of forces that can affect the growth of Virgin Atlantic. Also, a number of forces determines the level of competition and competitiveness in the market that Virgin has to face.
Beside of increasing the route, the fleet of Qantas has been also well organized. To enhance the flying experience for passenger, Qantas now operate a daily service from Australia to London Heathrow by using the largest passenger aircraft airbus A380. On the other hand Emirates also operate the extended ranged Boeing B777 to fly from Dubai to