Virgin Atlantic has secured £200m in additional funding from parent company Virgin. The airline is also set to cut a third of its workforce to survive the crisis.
The transatlantic carrier was founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1984 and is 51 per cent owned by the Virgin Group and 49 per cent owned by US airline Delta.
Virgin has set an informal deadline of early July for a potential funding agreement – the new financing arrangements do not involve any input from the government.
Virgin Atlantic’s proposal for a £500m package of commercial loans was rejected by the Treasury in April after failing to impress the government.
A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said: “Virgin Atlantic has been working on a comprehensive, solvent recapitalisation of the airline to ensure that we can continue to provide essential connectivity and competition to consumers and businesses in Britain and beyond.
“We greatly appreciate the support of our shareholders, creditors and private investors and by working together, we will ensure that Virgin Atlantic can emerge from the crisis a sustainably profitable airline, with a healthy balance sheet.”
