18L, Surely Not, and Happy Pilot -- you all have very perceptive and interesting views. 18L particularly seems to understand the situation on gorund at VK very well.
Like everyone else I thought JI was a monster: fast-grabbing, fast-talking arrogant SOB billionaire. Surprise! You will actually like him on face-to-face. He is 100% focused on business, and very result-oriented. Reality on ground was that VK was near-comatose, and would have ground to a halt in a matter of weeks, perhaps months -- when JI stepped in. Now there is new life in the airline, funds are available, more aircraft are on the way (already paid for or leased for) and great plans in the offing. Salaries are only one week late and getting better, and you can't miss the new energy in the footsteps of every VK staff.
About the NICON Airways fiasco? JI explained that he had only 20% shares in Nicon Airways, and other big boys in aviation held the rest. In VK for once he has a controlling interest.
I think he knows he bought a very good company. The template created by Virgin is the best I have ever seen -- 90% of the company employees are university graduates and have undergone some of the most rigorous screening -- background and aptitude -- prior to being hired. Here you have a company where lost wallets are usually returned with the contents intact, the workers uniformly above-average in intelligence and work ethic, etc. The brand is powerful, no doubt about that. The company has vision and purpose, and everyThe company is a cash cow just waiting for funds injection, and JI, never one to miss a money-making oppportunity, jumped on it.
As for education, many people don't seem to know that JI is very learned. Apart from degrees in Nigeria, he is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, and counts as his contempraries B. Obama and George Bush. His easy-going, down-to earth manner (sort of like R. Branson) underlie one of the sharpest business minds this side of Dangote.
Look for more and better things to come.