Virgin Atlantic Ltd. airline is planning to grow into one of the world’s major airlines. Its desire to combine with smaller rival British Midland Airways Ltd. became more ambitious when the British carrier, known as BMI, announced it would sell a 50% controlling stake to Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
All the three companies would possibly link under the Virgin brand. Virgin has been interested in BMI for a long time, figuring the airline’s routes within Britain and to Europe would complement Virgin Atlantic’s flights between London and the U.S. Representatives of Lufthansa and BMI did not give comments concerning their linking up with Virgin Atlantic.
British Virgin Islands-registered Virgin group has become one of the best-known brands in Britain. The mail-order business of the group started in 1969, and now the Virgin group has stakes in many diverse operations. The credit crunch makes pressure on at least one of Virgin’s debts, although the whole amount of debt of the BVI group is not clear yet, as Virgin Group is not publicly traded and does not report its accounts. British cable-television company, Virgin Media Inc., faced a deadline for lenders to approve postponing GBP 1.66 billion in loan payments due in 2010 and in the beginning of 2011. According to regulatory filings, the company might not have enough cash to repay the debt.