Privately held Virgin Atlantic Airways cited "strong growth in business traffic" as it posted a $30.1 million (£18.5 million) pre-tax operating profit for the year ending Feb. 28, 2011.

Total revenue increased 13 percent year over year and 21 percent on U.K.-U.S. routes. "Stronger economic performance on both sides of the Atlantic produced healthy growth in traffic, passenger market share gains across our gateways and more rational market capacity," according to North America senior vice president Chris Rossi. For the quarter ending May 31, Virgin reported a 7.6 percent revenue increase, though chief executive Steve Ridgway noted that "a sharp recovery in the first half of the year has been tempered by more challenged trading in the latter period," due notably to higher fuel costs. The airline also announced plans for a $163 million investment in product development.