VIRGIN ATLANTIC

Back in the early ,80s when Virgin Atlantic was born, Richard Branson, the go getting entrepreneur and self confessed sweater lover, had a hugely successful business in the Virgin Group. Born in 1950, Richard established a national student magazine while at the English public school Stowe and started a student advisory service when he was just 17. Three years later he founded the Virgin mail order record company and shortly after opened a music shop in London ,s main shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street. A studio was built in Oxfordshire in 1972, where one Mike Oldfield recorded his massive album Tubular Bells. That sold 5 million copies and was the catalyst for Virgin Records, which went on to sign such household names as The Rolling Stones, Culture Club, Janet Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds and The Human League. Virgin was to become one of the six biggest record companies in the world and by the early ,80s Virgin Group was going great guns. Then, in 1984, Richard received a call out of the blue with the idea of operating a Jumbo jet passenger service between London and New York. Branson liked the plan a lot more than his fellow directors, who thought he was crazy and announced to the world that Virgin Atlantic Airways would begin operating within three months

Airbus A340 (G-VSEA)

An aircraft was found, staff were hired, licences obtained and, thanks in a great part to Richard ,s infectious enthusiasm, the airline took off on deadline. On the 22 June 1984 a plane packed with friends, celebs and the media set off for Newark, New York a star airline was born. Now Virgin Atlantic has become the second largest British long-haul international airline operating services out of London's Heathrow and Gatwick to 18 different destinations all over the world, as far apart as Shanghai and the Caribbean. In 1992 Richard Sold Virgin Music for $1bn to Thorn EMI and ploughed the profits back into Virgin Atlantic, improving an already great service even more. He still has a big role in the music industry via the international Megastores as well as a chain of cinemas and interests in nightclubs, book and software publishing, film and video editing and hotels. In December 1999 Richard Branson signed an agreement to sell a 49% stake of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines to form a unique global partnership - the deal values Virgin Atlantic at a minimum of £1.225 billion. In 1999, the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies were around £3 billion.

Boeing 747-200 New Colors (G-VIBE)

In the 1999 New Years Honours list Richard Branson received a knighthood for his services to entrepreneurship. In fact he never stops and just for fun has been involved in round the world balloon attempts as well as rekindling the spirit of the Blue Riband when he crossed the Atlantic in his Virgin Atlantic Challenger II boat in the fastest ever recorded time. So what next? Well there ,s plenty planned for Virgin Atlantic, of which the launch of the new identity and this Website is just the beginning and Richard still has his eyes on the sky if not even further he ,s recently been heard to mention the idea of hotels in space.

Boeing 747-400 "Austin Powers" (G-VTOP)