The Guardian - Nils Pratley

Here’s the bit Sir Richard Branson didn’t mention in his open letter to Virgin employees a fortnight ago: the only possible route to the Treasury’s wallet involves almost a third of the 10,000 staff at the Virgin Atlantic losing their jobs.

The jobs decision hadn’t been taken at the time but Branson could still have foreshadowed an obvious threat. Government ministers were never going to throw £500m of taxpayers’ money, or some such sum, in Virgin Atlantic’s direction unless they could see a vaguely credible plan to cut costs. The airline, remember, was loss-making even before the pandemic...more

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