Virgin Atlantic has reported a third successive year of profit in its annual financial results.

For the calendar year ended December 31, 2016, total group revenue was £2.69 billion, and the Virgin Atlantic Group  reported a profit before tax and exceptional items (PBTEI) of £23 million.

“This represents a marginal improvement on the prior year (up £0.5 million), despite the challenging macro-environment conditions of 2016, and is the group’s fourth year of improving its PBTEI,” it said in a statement.

The group said a “particular driver of this improved financial result” was Virgin Holidays, the tour operating arm of Virgin Atlantic Group, which grew profits before tax and exceptional items by 75.2% to £19.1 million in 2016, in its first full year following a change in business model in late 2015 to become direct-sale only.

The growth has been attributed to higher passenger volume and margin.

David Geer, Virgin Holidays managing director, said: “We’re delighted to have achieved another strong year of improved performance, while continuing to deliver better holiday experiences to even more customers.

“This was both a fantastic effort from the entire Virgin Holidays team, and a confirmation of the success of our decision to move to a direct-sale only model.

“We are looking forward to another successful year ahead.”

Virgin Holidays increased its departed passenger volumes by 4.9%, arranging 341,000 Virgin Holidays experiences for customers to more than 45 destinations.

This was supported by the colocation of Delta into Terminal 3 at Heathrow, allowing passengers to enjoy a “seamless connecting experience”, the company said.

Speaking to TTG onboard the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow to Seattle service, chief executive Craig Kreeger said the airline had a “good year in difficult circumstances”.

He also said that the airline “anticipates 2017 to be a loss-making year.”

Kreeger added that there was no booking evidence to indicate a so-called "Trump slump" affecting intent to travel to the US.

“While I have certainly read a number of articles in the UK media suggesting such a thing exists and it may very well at some point we certainly haven’t seen it in our bookings in the first part of 2017,” he said.

Kreeger said he believed there was an “opportunity” for Virgin Atlantic to capitalise on Americans flying to the UK and that there “has never been a better bargain” time for American travellers than now.

He added that Virgin Atlantic had noticed British holidaymakers were adjusting their travel spend as a result of currency impact but that the carrier believed the tradition of the holiday is “sacrosanct”.

Kreeger said that the carrier remained optimistic for the year ahead adding that the airline was “We “well positioned” and would reap the benefits of the money it had invested into itself over the last three years.

Tom Mackay, Virgin Atlantic chief financial officer, added: “We are satisfied with our performance in an environment that saw increased competition, with a 6% increase in transatlantic market capacity, and a rise in Brent crude prices of more than 50% through the course of the year.

“A decline in both bookings and the rate of the pound following the EU referendum materially impacted our revenues, but through sensibly managing capacity and network, our load factors increased and we grew our UK point of sale market share on our routes. We were also disciplined on cost control.

“Looking forward, we anticipate the challenges which emerged in 2016 around currency fluctuations, rising fuel prices and lower passenger revenues to continue, but we are well positioned to manage this.

“We are flying the right aircraft across the right network, we have a strong cash position and a successful partner in Delta; with them we will look to grow our customer base in both the UK and the US in 2017 and beyond.”