Virgin Australia has announced it is cutting 750 jobs as part of a major restructure which includes shuffling its leadership team as well as reviewing routes.
The news comes as the carrier posted its seventh straight annual loss.
In its latest financial filing, Virgin Australia, which is backed by China’s HNA Group and Nanshan Group, reported a statutory loss of A$315.4 million (approximately $213.2 million) in the full year of 2019 - an improvement on its A$653.3 million loss last year.
The cuts will take place in Virgin's corporate and head office roles, representing, which the Financial Times reports, about 7.5% of its 10,000 workforce — reducing annual costs by A$75 million by the end of 2020.
The carrier blamed its poor results on challenging conditions in the second half of 2019, as it posted an underlying loss before tax of A$71.2 million, a huge swing from the A$64.4 million profit during the previous year.
Virgin Australia has also stated that a rise in fuel and foreign exchange costs have contributed to “softer conditions”, which have continued.
Paul Scurrah, who took over from John Borghetti as Virgin’s chief executive in March, said: “There is no doubt that we are operating in a tough economic climate with high fuel, a low Australian dollar, and subdued trading conditions.
However, results show that we must improve our financial performance. We need to make changes to our costs to ensure we see financial benefit from the growth in our business.”
Furthermore, the airline has said that a review of strategic supply agreements should produce A$50 million in cost savings.
Regarding its leadership changes, Virgin has said that Geoff Smith, who has been chief financial officer since 2015, is leaving and will be replaced by Keith Neate, a former executive at Virgin Blue and Aurizon Holdings, the rail company.