The following all cut & paste from Times on Line:
The sky is not the limit for Virgin Atlantic - Times Online
As a privately owned company, Virgin Atlantic does not have to provide much information to the outside world. But it seems that profits from ongoing operations, excluding exceptional items, fell from £44.4million to £25.9million, and the latter figure was boosted by currency gains totalling £68million.
Singapore Airlines, which holds a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic, also tells a different story. Its annual figures, produced under the widely adopted international financial reporting standards (IFRS), suggest that Virgin Atlantic barely broke even last year, and suffered heavily in the fourth quarter.
Chan Hon Chew, senior vice president for Singapore Airlines, attributed the group’s £45.9million loss in the fourth quarter to its stake in Virgin Atlantic, adding that, over the full year, its stake generated just £172,000 in profits
Reader comments:
Branson would not have a strong airline if BA had not created the market. He needs to understand that competition is good. Instead, let us be proud that we have two very good international airlines. Also, I suspect that he will threaten to withdraw funding of labour of he does not get his way.
Richard Branson has a personnal vandeta against BA, that's all. I personally used Virgin services for a while (broadband, airline, etc) because I had no choice ..., and I must say that each time Virgin was very good at marketing ... but not delivering what I actually paid for ...
Service is not one of Bransons strong points in any of his businesses. Most of them are still works in progress. I do hope the goverment dont listen to him or else we will have another crap service from whats left of BA. And BA isnt that bad, i have many good experiences of flying with them.
Irresponsible comments from a greedy man. He's hoping that scaremongering will cause people not to fly with BA and dump shares etc.
Around the world, people see BA as a quality British icon. He's always been envious of BA's image and reputation and wants a slice of it.
Here we go...Branson to the rescue..NOT..have you flown Virgin lately...they have gone down the pan...rude cabin crew who are not paid enough to care...poor ground service and gimmicky brands...there is not much difference between BA and Virgin..Bring back British Caldeonian..thats was an airline!
If that is the case Mr Branson can we have the billions in subsidies to Virgin Rail back?
From Basil: Let's remember,
VS cherry-picked the most profitable routes. They were never interested in the unprofitable destinations served by BA.
They started up using the skill and route knowledge of retired BA captains.
Dodgy dealing? Pot! Kettle! Black!
