Virgin Australia records $355.6m financial loss

Virgin Australia has increased its full year net loss more than three-fold to $355.6 million.

The airline also announced that it had sold a 35 per cent stake in its frequent flyer program to private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners for $960 million.

Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said the last year had been one of the most difficult operating environments in the history of Australian aviation.

Virgin's underlying loss before tax of $211.7 million was in line with expectations, it said.

The higher statutory loss after tax included asset impairment of $56.9 million and restructuring costs of $117.3 million.

The company did not provide any financial guidance or capacity growth for fiscal year 2015 because of what it said was the uncertain economic environment.

Virgin was in the middle of its five-year program to generate $1 billion in productivity gains by June 2017, it said.

It blamed the result on the capacity war with rival Qantas, weak consumer sentiment, continued economic uncertainty and the $51.6 million cost of the carbon tax.

Its costs increased by 3.4 percent.

Qantas posted a record $2.8 billion loss on Thursday, skewed by a $2.6 billion writedown to the value of the airline's international fleet.

The sale of the frequent flyer stake will power growth in it and earn Virgin $336 million, it said.