Not sure the threat of a BA strike will offer much help according to the huge VS drop in forward bookings reported (30%+ drop last month on premium apparently) The benefit will be very short lived and will not avert the current serious long term problems of none of the alliances wanting to get VS on board.
My sources (very reliable as you have seen in previous posts) have no doubt that BA will hit the nuclear option with cabin crew this time. All of July talking to ACAS, followed by 90 day notice of imposition of new contracts. By the time a legal ballot is called and actioned, earliest dates will be Sep/Oct - summer season over. They already have ring fenced funds in place to take on the cabin crew union and break them into tiny pieces this time. Watch this space.
VS has huge exposure to the N. Atlantic and little else. They offer a tiny amount of routes elsewhere and are unable to redirect their efforts accordingly. BA have a large Worldwide route structure which, apart from the N. Arlantic, is still apparently holding up pretty well. VS need some new non Atlantic routes, and quickly.
Whilst not directly related to the current redundancies, the press are starting to show serious interest in the previously squeaky clean image:
Daily Mail 7/7/09
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Megastores accumulated losses of more than £300million before they were sold off two years ago.
Accounts filed at Companies House show that Virgin Holdings, which owns a number of Branson's businesses, swung into the red in the year that ended in March 2008.
Profits of £151.7million turned into losses of £227.3million that year after a one-off operating loss of £324.3million.
That came after the 125 Virgin Megastores were sold to Zavvi, a rival music retailer, which went into administration last year with debts of more than £100million.
A Virgin spokesman said that Virgin Holdings' losses were mainly due to accumulated losses at Megastores over many years, which were written off once the business was sold.
The accounts also reveal that Virgin paid Zavvi £61million to break a licensing agreement for the use of the Virgin brand.
The firm also wrote off another £21million when it sold Virgin Vie, the cosmetics business, to its management. This also led to a payment - of £8.8million - to remove the Virgin brand.
Last edited by NOBBY NOBOV; 7th Jul 2009 at 17:53.