Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd has acknowledged that it is experiencing slow down in sales and to address the slump, chief executive John Borghetti is training his eyes on business class flyers, looking at the possibility that the budget carrier could entice other market segments apart from its existing revenue base.

Mr Borghetti told Virgin Blue stockbrokers gathered in Melbourne yesterday that getting business travellers to board Virgin planes was top on his priority list, leaving note though that cloning Qantas' business offerings would be far from his mind.

He used to work for Qantas but the chief executive is upbeat that "Virgin Blue has the opportunity to design business class for today with a better cost base as compared to what Qantas has been offering."

Mr Borghetti noted that the airline industry has been suffering from low airfares, with the economy class tickets slashed by up to half of their tag price from seven years ago but the business class fares were fairly unchanged, shedding only five percent of its July 2003 value.

He said that the business class sector could offer more revenue opportunities for the airline industry, which Virgin Blue would only be willing to grab, with two loyalty alliances being forged with other airlines this month as part of the carrier's strategic review.

Virgin downgraded its earnings guidance twice in May and said that the company is expecting net profit before tax of around $20 million to $40 million for 2009/10, which is 75 percent below from the guidance published in May 3.

Mr Borghetti said that Virgin Blue is a strong company, with about $800 million to boot plus the absence of any bank covenants as he downplayed talks that the airline issued the downgrades to clear the decks, stressing that "nothing could be further from the truth."

He also reiterated that the budget carrier has no plans of surrendering to competitors its key service routes as he noted that the leisure market is Virgin Blue's fuel for 80 percent of its business.

He admitted some disappointments though as capacity throughout the airline industry had been reduced starting in January and he is predicting that more cuts would occur before Christmas as "everyone went fast too soon."

Mr Borghetti is still optimistic that industry conditions would only improve and revealed that Virgin Blue is planning for its immediate future, noting that as of late no major Australian airlines were losing market share as he declared that "in the next 12 months, we will have a much stronger, much more resilient and diversified airline."