News Flash
Virgin Atlantic will survive, with or without Government assistance. The sad difference will be in the number of job losses. But survive it will. History has shown us that the Virgin haters out there are far far outnumbered by the Virgin Lovers. And our passion to survive will of course, eclipse anyones desire to see us fail. And we actually have far more experience than our name suggests!
We have thoroughly enjoyed our 36 years of proving the critics wrong about our viability, profitability and very importantly our desirability. 36 years of keeping up with and at times beating some pretty strong and sometimes down right devious competition. People say we never make money. Well we have always had to spend heavily and fight tooth and nail to maintain our position at Heathrow and Gatwick, which are some of the most fought over slots in the world. We have had to continually reinvest and reinvent ourselves to make sure we have a modern, clean and above all safe product to give our passengers. To have survived this long we must have got something right! Virgin employees are rather well looked after and we come to work with a smile on our faces, enjoying a pretty well funded and healthy working environment. We feel safe in the knowledge that the company is being run well and by people we trust and that have actually made some pretty good provisions for any rainy days. Richard is very protective about this part of his businesses and I feel his recent desire to seek assistance and assurance from all possible sources, including the U.K. government, has given some of the vultures out there, the scent of blood. But these vultures are mistaken if they think there is a carcass in the offing! He may have to dilute his share of the business, but he just wanted to make sure it survives, and this has drawn attention. He does that from time to time.
We started this journey 36 years ago with one single aeroplane. And fought hard to establish our brand and our very unique Virgin style, that despite the haters out there, has flourished and is clearly loved by those that choose to come back to us time and time again, in-spite of the machinations of a few very powerful adversaries. And then there is the workforce who time after time bend over backwards to get the job done and deliver for the customers and each other. We love this company and will fight to ensure it continues to be such a great place to work.
Right now we have only a quarter of our aeroplanes flying, but these few machines are gainfully employed on cargo only operations and every day sees their payloads growing, and with more and more new cargo contracts being taken on, we will soon need to get more of the fleet back flying to help with this.
This is all helping to minimise our daily cash burn and make our cash reserves go a little further. But we can all see what is in front of us, we will now need to make some very painful sacrifices in order to adapt and reconfigure to a more sustainable size, and emerge from this trimmer but fighting fit, for what will be an even tougher and very different market place.
It is heart breaking that we will have to make some very difficult but necessary cuts, and say goodbye to some of our family and friends, and those of us that remain will no doubt be asked to also make sacrifices, tighten out belts and go that little bit further. But we will do what it takes to survive. Our small size will give us the ability to adapt quickly and decisively. But I’ll say it again, we will survive!
We are going to be a thorn in Willie Walsh’s side for a long time yet! But we also wish our friends at BA and all other airlines well! As an industry and as a Company we will get through this together. #Bekind
Last edited by virgin mary; 26th Apr 2020 at 11:53.