Virgin Atlantic profit up on business travellers

LONDON (Reuters) - Virgin Atlantic, the airline controlled by entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said its annual profit rose 38 percent, helped by an increase in bookings from business travellers.

Virgin Atlantic, which specialises in long-haul flights to North America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, said its underlying pretax profit for 2007/08 was 60.9 million pounds. up from 44 million pounds the previous year.

The carrier attributed the increase to a rise in business travel bookings, with premium passenger numbers up 22 percent on the year, helping boost group sales by 9.1 percent to 2.34 billion pounds.

Virgin Atlantic, 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines, added that it had attracted customers from British Airways due to "ongoing problems" at its arch-rival's new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport.

Terminal 5 was hit by severe disruption due to baggage-handling problems shortly after it opened in March.

In a statement, Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway said the airline was "well placed to succeed", despite high oil prices and weakening consumer demand.

(Reporting by Myles Neligan, editing by Will Waterman)