Company Watch - Virgin Group

AirGuide Business, Jan 21, 2008

Jan 21, 2008

Qantas Airways said all domestic carriers experienced a decline in reliability in the second half of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006. A spokesman said Qantas did better than Virgin Blue throughout 2007. However, November had been a particularly bad month for weather on the east coast of Australia. "High winds in Sydney meant the airport was often reduced to a single runway," he said. Virgin Blue spokeswoman Heather Jeffery said: "We can't speak for the industry but November doesn't appear to have been a stellar month for anyone. She said several factors were at play: air traffic congestion, delays due to weather, minor unscheduled maintenance and record passenger numbers. Jan 18, 2008

Virgin Atlantic says it will run a 747 plane on biofuel in a February test flight. Virgin Atlantic said Monday Jan. 14 it would fly one of its Boeing 747 planes on biofuel during a demonstration flight from London to Amsterdam next month. Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson said the test flight, which he called the first of its kind, would yield crucial information on how to reduce aviation's carbon footprint. Branson launched an alternative fuels division at Virgin in 2006, pledging the profits from his airline and trains for 10 years. In the middle of 2007, Virgin trains began a six-month trial of a passenger train using biofuel, an experiment the company said could lead it to switch its entire fleet over to a mix of diesel and biofuel. His green private equity fund, the Virgin Green Fund, has invested millions of dollars in biofuel startups such as Cilion, Ethanol Grain Processors, and Indiana Bio-Energy. Jan 15, 2008

Toll Holdings Sale Of Virgin Blue Stake Unlikely Soon Report. Australian logistics group Toll Holdings has said a sale of its majority stake in airline Virgin Blue is unlikely in the short-term, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday. However, Chatfield also said there remained several interested parties in the 63 percent stake, and that the fall in the airline's share price had left it undervalued. Toll acquired its stake in Virgin Blue through its $6 billion-plus takeover of ports operator Patrick in 2006. Jan 15, 2008

Virgin Trains one operator which lost millions of pounds in revenue because of the chaos is relying on Network Rail to complete other engineering projectson the West Coast line before next Christmas, when it plans to introduce more frequent London-to-Glasgow services. Virgin complained to ORR that Network Rail breached the terms of its operating licence, but said a huge fine was not necessarily the answer. Rather, it wants the company to have to overhaul its planning procedures, and carry them out in a far more orderly process so everyone knows what journeys will be possible and what timings will be available. Jan 15, 2008

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