Sir Richard Branson once said: “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” In which case the Bearded One should soon be blessed with a strut to grace London Fashion Week.
His first tumble came on Tuesday when Virgin Australia went under after it was refused a state bailout. Branson and other investors were told emphatically that the Australian government would not be bailing out “large foreign shareholders with deep pockets”.
But a much bigger slip awaits as Virgin Atlantic, the jewel in the tycoon’s aviation crown, slowly slips from his grasp after co-owner Delta Air Lines publicly ruled out participating in any rescue. The US carrier is barred from investing in foreign businesses under the terms of a state-backed bailout back home.
And what Branson would give for the generous support that the American government has lavished on its flagging airline industry: a $50bn (£40.5bn) package of loans and grants, with the first slug of debt commanding an interest rate of just 1pc, and which doesn’t have to be repaid for 10 years. Delta and its rivals must be pinching themselves.
