Sir Richard Branson has announced a US$250,000 cash
injection for Virgin Group companies including Virgin Atlantic to combat the
financial impact of Covid-19.
The cash will be provided “over the next weeks and months”
to the group’s businesses, which include Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays, Virgin
Voyages and Virgin Hotels, which combined Branson said employ more than 70,000
people across 35 countries.
He said: “Because many of our businesses are in industries
like travel, leisure and wellness, they are in a massive battle to survive and
save jobs. Our airlines have had to ground almost all their planes, our cruise
line has had to postpone its launch, our health clubs and hotels have had to
close their doors and all bookings to our holiday company have stopped.”
The cash injection is “likely just the start”, according to
Branson, but he warned that the survival of travel businesses “will depend
critically upon governments around the world successfully mobilising various
newly announced support programmes”.
Virgin Atlantic is taking steps to mitigate the financial
impact of a reduction in capacity, with Branson saying employees “unanimously
decided they would collectively volunteer to take unpaid leave for eight weeks
out of the next six-and-a-half months in order to limit financial hardship for
everyone”.
Branson added: “Our people have and will always be my number
one priority. It is their future job security and their wellbeing that I am 100
per cent focusing on in these frightening and unprecedented times.
“I remember the days and weeks after 9/11, when all airlines
and travel companies took extremely painful decisions to make redundancies in
order to keep businesses afloat and the dramatic impact it had on people then.
We are doing all we can to stop that happening now.”