Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka says there is “no pressure” when it comes to timing the airline’s plan to go public, dismissing the arrival of aviation’s super profits era as the upshot of typically cyclical airline earnings.

She unveiled new investments in the airline’s fleet at the weekend to step up the competition with Qantas on domestic routes, where Virgin unseated Qantas’ dominance over Sydney-Melbourne traffic in May, as it competes harder for business travellers.