Regional Round-Up
“Down under” dumped by Virgin Atlantic
March 1st 2014
Virgin Atlantic Airways will terminate its decade-long Hong Kong-Sydney daily service in May after months of losses on a route without a profitable future. Read More » Virgin Atlantic’s boss, Craig Kreeger, said the pull out was based on increasing costs and the high Australian dollar. As a result of the Virgin decision, British Airways will be the only European carrier flying to Australia from mid-year. It is all very different from circa Sydney 2004 when Branson launched the Hong Kong-Sydney route with his particularly effective razzamatazz. Dressed in shorts and T-shirt , with a surfboard hoisted over his head and bikini clad surfer chicks clucking around him, he declared his airline would soon be flying to other Australian cities aboard his ordered (and still not delivered) A380s. The new route, established in competition with Cathay Pacific Airways, followed Branson’s majority investment in Australia’s first budget carrier, Brisbane-based Virgin Blue. Branson sold and bought through the life of the carrier, which has been transformed from a budget operator into Virgin Australia, an effective rival to a struggling Qantas. Now a knight of the British realm, Branson holds 10% of Virgin Australia, an airline that is now 70% owned by foreign carriers.
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