Virgin Blue's chief executive John Borghetti is charging full steam ahead with the airline's aggressive plans to take on the business travel market.
Virgin announced yesterday that it will ditch loss-making flights to South Africa by V Australia, in favour of services to the Middle East through a tie-up with Etihad that will give it access to the European travel market via Abu Dhabi.
Yesterday Virgin also posted a $21 million net profit for the year to June, up from a loss in 2009.
The Etihad deal is aimed at capturing as much as 15 per cent of the Australian corporate travel market within two years.
Mr Borghetti, who's been in his role for three months, says he's realised that Virgin has even more potential that he'd first thought.
He says that the deal with Etihad positions the airline as a global player.
Virgin Blue posted a $160 million loss in the year to 30 June 2009.
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