Britain’s airline industry needs emergency government support worth up to £7.5bn. Peter Norris, the chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways’ majority shareholder, Virgin Group, will write to the prime minister on Monday to warn that the sector needs immediate financial aid to survive.
Sources said that Mr Norris’s letter – which is also understood to be being signed by Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive – would ask the government to provide airlines with a credit facility to help them through the next few months where they expect no income to come in.
That support, which the Virgin chairman estimates would be worth between £5bn and £7.5bn across the industry, would include cash advances and guarantees, as well as other measures to ensure that credit card companies do not continue to hoard revenue from airline bookings.
Under Mr Norris’s blueprint, this emergency financing would be repaid once trading returns to more normal levels.
One source close to the airline, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1984, said that Mr Norris would also ask the PM to extend the timetable for allowing airlines to keep planes grounded without losing their prized take-off and landing slots for the entire summer season.
Branson owns 51% of Virgin Atlantic and he is a major tax exile spending most of the year in the Caribbean. He was a massive supporter of remaining in the EU as well as campaigning for globalist policies.
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