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Virgin Australia is planning to cut 750 head office and corporate roles to slash $75 million a year in costs, as it seeks to rebound from a $349m full-year loss.

The company reduced its net loss from an even-bigger $681m last year, however, its underlying performance excluding one-off costs and gains – of $71.2m before tax – was a big drop from a profit of $64.4m the year before.

The airline’s new boss, Paul Scurrah, attributed the rapid descent in profits to subdued trading conditions in the second half of the financial year, combined with rising fuel and foreign exchange costs and increased operational costs.

Virgin said it faced $159m in fuel and foreign exchange “headwinds”, but has now hedged in excess of 90 percent of its forecast 2019-20 financial year fuel consumption against price increases and extended hedging into 2021.

The airline is also engaging in a substantial cost-cutting program, with a back-office “simplification” to merge the corporate and operational functions of its domestic, regional and Tigerair operations.

This will facilitate a 750-staff reduction in its corporate and head office workforce, with expected savings of $75m per annum.