I sometimes despair at human nature whether it’s from a troll or someone in another airline. 10,000 jobs are at stake and the vast majority of you want to see Virgin fail purely so Branson fails. Years ago, he had a vision and 30 years later we had, until recently, a flourishing airline. The airline has spent the last few years restructuring and trimming costs, we now have a fleet of the most fuel-efficient aircraft going (744s were due to retire next year). We were on the up, announcing new routes later this year, with the Joint Venture with Delta paying dividends. We had a good ‘fighting fund’ of £450 million which would have seen us through most recessions. But not this one. How the Government is handling this shambles is for another day.
BA would love to see all airlines apart from theirs go bust. I bet they are already thinking about the windfall of SAA going under. Wee Willy Walsh has made no secret of wanting Virgin to go under. The calibre of the man was shown when he wanted to wager that we would go under in 5 years with the prize of a knee in the bollocks to the loser, that 5 years passed some time ago. When Casio Royale aired on board BA flights, he made sure a short clip of Branson was removed – how utterly childish. It’s pure greed and a power trip, just how many houses and Ferrari’s do people need.
When I hear of an airline going under I am genuinely saddened – regardless how they were managed. I was very happy we could help a few from Monarch and Thomas Cook recently.
His tax is his own business, I don’t know the facts and I’m sure you and Diane Abbott don’t either. All I know is that over the 30 years Virgin Atlantic and its employees have paid Billions in tax to the Government and £350 millions last year alone. We are only asking for a loan of £500 million for which Branson is offering his island as a guarantee.
As a footnote. All you keyboard warriors who drink at Starbucks, have an iPhone, Google on a regular basis and Facetime/Instagram think how much you’re giving to companies who pay fcuk all in tax.