The Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (ASX: VAH) share price has taken off in morning trade.
At the time of writing the airline's shares have risen almost 4% to 19.2 cents.
Today's gain will be a welcome relief to shareholders who have had to watch the shares of rival Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) soar to a nine-year high recently.
Last month Virgin Australia provided the market with a trading update which revealed a statutory loss before tax of $62.3 million for the third quarter of FY 2017.
This brought its statutory loss after tax for the nine months ending March 31 to $90.6 million.
Management blamed the loss on foreign exchange fluctuations on US dollar-denominated debt, subdued domestic industry trading conditions, and the one-off revenue impact of the withdrawal of Tigerair Australia's Bali operations.
But based on current market conditions, Virgin Australia expects a big improvement in its underlying performance in the fourth quarter.
