Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has bet British Airways (BA) £1m that the Virgin Atlantic brand will still be around in five years.
Writing on the Virgin blog, Sir Richard dismissed suggestions from Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, which owns BA, that the brand would soon disappear.
It has been reported Sir Richard may sell some of his 51% stake.
But he said: "We have no plans to disappear."
Recent reports suggested that Delta Airlines had offered to buy Singapore Airlines' 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic.
As part of that deal, Delta's European partner Air-France-KLM would then buy some of Mr Branson's stake, paving the way for the Virgin brand to disappear from the airline, the reports said.
Sir Richard said that instead of suing BA for Mr Walsh's comments, he would bet £1m, to be distributed to either Virgin Atlantic or BA staff, that his airline brand would still exist in five years.
The offer came on the day that Virgin Atlantic announced details of a short-haul business to compete with British Airways on routes linking London's Heathrow airport and Scotland.
There has been a long history of disputes between BA and Virgin.
Sir Richard has been particularly critical of the number of takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow Airport that BA holds, especially after its parent company IAG bought BMI, which gave it more slots.
He had previously campaigned against BA's proposed merger with American Airlines. They ended up not merging but have an international alliance.
In the early 1990s, Sir Richard won damages and an apology from BA at the High Court for a "dirty tricks" campaign, in which BA allegedly poached passengers, staff and gave negative stories about the Virgin founder to the press.
Discuss.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:16
by orudge
I was thinking (and hoping) that Virgin Atlantic may join Star Alliance (and that Virgin Australia and maybe even Virgin America would do the same), but SkyTeam? Ergh. Still, we'll see what happens. (SkyTeam is widely considered, mostly by flyers of Star and oneworld, to be the "poor man's alliance".)
United Airlines was looking into a deal to merge with US Airways a few years ago, and everybody was quite surprised at that, but it would seem to have been a ploy to just get an offer instead from Continental Airlines, whom they actually wanted to merge with (and did merge with). It does look like Virgin will need to join some kind of alliance if it wants to remain relevant though - even some of the famously independent Middle Eastern carriers are joining or looking into joining alliances (Qatar has just announced they're to join oneworld, for instance). Emirates will probably remain independent for some time at least I imagine, but Ethiad has been cosying up with various partners.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 13:09
by JamieLei
Emirates have been cosying up to Quantas so much that it might actually force Quantas out of oneworld, what with the joint BA/Quantas business ending.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
"I don't think £1m would hurt him ... I don't have £1m, so a knee in the groin, maybe - that would be as painful to him as it might be to me"
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 16:56
by PikkaBird
JamieLei wrote:Quantas Quantas Quantas
Stop that at once.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 17:45
by Nawdic
And he's spelled it wrong.
Qantas.
Even my Gooseberry's correct for once.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 19:43
by EXTspotter
It is an acronym, so normal engish rules do not apply.
Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 23:19
by JamieLei
EXTspotter wrote:It is an acronym, so normal engish rules do not apply.
Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service
Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess!
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 23:25
by Dave
QUANTAS.
What's wrong with you!?
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 14:43
by Nawdic
180px-Qantas_Airways_Limited_logo.svg.png (9.6 KiB) Viewed 1974 times
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 18:18
by Jacko
Last Ninja Monk From a totally different thread wrote:
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 18:33
by Dave
OMFG GUY ITS QANTAS I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS LoLoL
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 22:40
by GurraJG
EXTspotter wrote:It is an acronym, so normal engish rules do not apply.
Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. But yes.
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 13 Dec 2012 23:09
by EXTspotter
That'll teach me for not checking against wikipedia first...
Re: Sir Richard Branson bets £1m on Virgin Atlantic survival
Posted: 28 Jan 2013 16:09
by audigex
I've just had a document at work from Qantas, their own staff member spelled it wrong I think it's a tricky thing for English speakers to get their head around.
I think it's a tricky thing for English speakers to get their head around.