Virgin completes sale of Velocity stake

Virgin completes sale of Velocity stake
By admin


Virgin Australia has reportedly completed the sale of its 35% stake of its Velocity Frequent Flyer program to Affinity Equity Partners, in a bid to strengthen the airline’s balance sheet.

The SMH reports the deal is expected to increase the airline’s balance by $336 million and comes after last week’s announcement Virgin Australia will take full ownership of Tigerair Australia and introduce new short-haul international routes.

Velocity chief executive Neil Thompson told the paper selling off a stake in the program will add capital and resources to fast-track the airline’s strategy to become a “world-class loyalty business”.

According to the paper, Velocity aims to sign 7 million members by 2017, and presently has 4.5 million members.

Qantas maintains the biggest frequent flyer programme between the two, with 10.2 million members, the paper reported. In August the national carrier decided against selling a minority stake of its frequent flyer program.

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