VIRGIN boss Richard Branson has confirmed that his long awaited US-based budget airline will not start until next year and will be based either at San Francisco or New York. Unlike JetBlue Branson seems to have ruled out using the Embraer 190. Speaking at an entrepreneurs' summit in ”Big Apple”, Branson said the carrier, which does not yet have a name, route structure or aircraft. "I can't at this stage confirm whether it's going to be Airbus or Boeing. I think the airline is going to need about 50 ”planes," he said. He explained that one way around the ownership problem would be for the operator to licence the brand. As discussed in this edition of ABTN the US currently restricts foreign ownership of US airlines to 25% voting stake and 49% total equity. Fred Reid, former president of Delta Air Lines (DAL), was recently named as head of Virgin USA.
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