Again Sir Richard is trying to hid his dependency on a lack of competition on the North Atlantic behind allegations of a monopoly of BA. That story is as old as incorrect, first of all the price level ex UK is far higher than these out of continental Europe. Virgin is depending on these (backed by the duopoloy with BA) to cover not only Virgin Atlantic as a whole but the complete Virgin group.
I am not a supporter of BA, but it has to be noted that theier overall share of North Atlantic traffic is somewhere in the 30% which can hardly be desribed as a lack of competition. What Virgin is doing bysically is trying to focus the public attentition on the benefits for the passengers and at the same time trying to avoid a change in this situation because it is their lifeline.
A change of this in the current environement could have crucial consequences as they are depending with 70% of their RPKīs on the USA routes. Percentage of contribution might normally even be higher. So itīs understandable, does not make it better though.
brgds, silversurfer