Virgin Australia Holdings Pty Limited has pushed plans for an initial public offering into the new year after posting a full-year profit only marginally higher than its first-half result. The $129 million net profit was the first full-year gain for the airline in 11 years, and represented a dramatic improvement on last year's $565.5 million loss. Healthy demand for leisure travel and small and medium enterprise business travel helped deliver the result, which built on the first-half profit of about $125 million.

Airline insiders put the significantly smaller second-half profit down to a "normalisation" of supply and demand, and a major workforce expansion. Over the reporting period, more than 1,800 frontline staff were hired by Virgin Australia, lifting the airline's workforce to 7340. CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the profit was "an important milestone" for Virgin Australia and signalled that the airline's transformation under owner Bain Capital was progressing well.

"We have a long-term commitment to transformation and are only part-way through this multi-year journey," Ms Hrdlicka said. "By creating a systemically lower cost base and a conservative balance sheet, as well as investing heavily in technology and our frontline, we are well positioned for the future." The Velocity loyalty business generated $330 million in revenue and $77 million in earnings before interest and tax, after increasing its membership to 11.5 million people. A financial report lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission noted that $8 million had been spent on legal advice and other preparations for an IPO.

Despite the outlay, it was expected Bain Capital would delay a public float until early 2024 in the hope that high oil prices would ease and Virgin Australia would record another strong half-year result. The report also revealed a $730 million capital return paid to Bain Capital and minor shareholders Virgin Group and the Queensland Investment Corporation in May was partly funded by a $300 million bridge loan. According to the report, the loan had a maturity date of May 2025 but "was required to be repaid from the initial primary proceeds in the event of an IPO which is expected to occur earlier".

Bain Capital declined to comment on the Virgin Australia result or offer any details of when the US private equity firm would relist the company on the ASX.