Virgin Galactic report strong sales in third quarter results

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) said it was on track to begin its commercial flights before the end of next year, with good progress selling first tickets to allow customers to follow founder Sir Richard Branson’s journey to the edge of space.

Having opened sales in August for its first private commercial flight, so far 700 of the US$450,000 tickets have been sold out of its 1,000 reservations, which would amount to total sales of US$315mln.

Virgin Galactic had originally sold 600 tickets back in 2014 for roughly US$200,000, however, it had to cancel these purchases and suspend sales until recently due to a crash on a test flight.

For the quarter ended 30 September, the company reported revenue of US$2.58mln, with a total of US$3.15mln for the nine months of the year to date.

Underlying losses for the quarter were US$68mln, compared to US$66mln in the third quarter last year.

A livestream of Branson’s successful flight in July saw millions tuning in and the company said this resulted in “tens of thousands of requests” for information on future flights, though it did not clarify if this resulted in any extra reservations.

Virgin Galactic had reserves of almost $1bn in the bank, which includes cash and cash equivalents of $721.

At time of publication, Virgin Galactic shares were trading at US$21.10, up from the previous close of US$19.88.

Story by ProactiveInvestors