Richard Branson’s airline, Virgin Australia, has entered into voluntary administration so as to recapitalize the business amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. The air carrier failed to secure $1.4 billion funding from the Australian government.
In line with this, the company’s board of directors has appointed Vaughan Strawbridge, John Greig, Sal Algheri, and Richard Hughes as voluntary administrators.
However, it will continue to operate its scheduled international and domestic flights for transporting essential services as well as charter flights for the evacuation of Australian citizens from various countries.
Still, the airline, which employs about 10,000 people directly and another 6,000 through indirect businesses, maintains that there will be no redundancies, and all Virgin employees will keep their jobs even as it is now seeking new buyers and investors.
Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson – whose Virgin group is a part-owner of Virgin Australia – has offered his Necker island in the Caribbean as collateral to help get a UK government bailout of Virgin Atlantic. He had already pumped $250 million into Virgin Group companies in response to the pandemic.
Virgin Australia is one of the largest airlines operating in Australia and is the largest airline by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. The airline directly serves 42 cities in Australia, from hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.
The following airlines have stakes in Virgin Australia:
- Etihad Airways – 21%
- Singapore Airlines – 20%
- HNA Group – 20%
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