Company Watch - Virgin Group

Airguide Online, Sept 10, 2007

Sep 10, 2007

Virgin America, Skybus fly different paths to profit. Virgin America is counting on amenities such as its superior in-flight entertainment options and comfortable seating to keep travelers coming back for its middle-of-the-road ticket prices. Skybus is unabashedly focused on passengers' bottom lines, offering super-cheap fares and selling all amenities on an a la carte basis. Sep 4, 2007

Plans for Earth's first tourist spaceport unveiled. Plans for the world's first tourist spaceport, designed by Foster Partners, have been unveiled. The facility will be built in Upham, N.M., and be home to Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Virgin expects to begin regular suborbital flights that will last two and a half hours as early as 2009. The carrier is currently accepting deposits on $200,000 "space tickets." Sep 7, 2007

Virgin Atlantic in the past favored four-engined planes because he said passengers, staff and pilots preferred them. But Virgin's low coast carriers such as Virgin Blue, Virgin America and Virgin Nigeria. all operate twin-engined Airbus jets. "Global warming has become a priority, but it also makes good economic sense to be eco-friendly," Branson told reporters, adding he favored two-engined jets for the future. From 3 percent of mankind's total contribution to global warming in 2005, aviation's emissions are set to rise by a factor of two to five by 2050, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a major report this year. Branson, who was in London to promote the PICNIC environmental innovation competition, doubted travelers would be deterred by the figures and called on politicians to act. Virgin is developing biofuels for aircraft alongside Boeing and engine-maker GE Aviation and plans to test them next year. Branson has pledged that for the next 10 years all profits from his 51 percent stakes in Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains will be invested in renewable energy. Sep 4, 2007

Virgin Group boss Richard Branson said he would aim to avoid buying fuel-thirsty four-engined planes in future to curb fuel costs and the environmental impact of his fast-growing airlines. Fears that CO2 emissions from airlines are fueling climate change will not reduce demand for air travel, he added, but innovation in biofuels could provide a solution in the next decade. Virgin Atlantic's fleet of 38 planes all have four engines, and it has six four-engined Airbus A380 superjumbos on order. But in April the airline said it was buying 15 of Boeing's new fuel-efficient carbon-composite 787 jets with two engines, which burn 27 percent less fuel than the Airbus A340s they will replace. Sep 4, 2007

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