You must have heard of the word Virgin, well if you have then the name Sir, Richard Branson should not be new to you at all. As the founder of the Virgin group which owns over 400 companies spanning from banking, cosmetics, commercial aviation, commercial spaceflight, consumer electronic, films, healthcare, internet, jewelry, mobile phone, retail, radio, travel, rail transport, and more, it is visible that this man isn’t a Virgin in everything he does but why he still uses the Virgin name; it might be because the first flight that disappointed Sir Richard Branson was to take him to British Virgin Island.
One thing that early things Sir Branson was known for was his airline, Virgin Atlantic although he owned Virgin records before the airline. In this post, I want to look into how Virgin Atlantic took business from British Airways. It is not a new thing to go to the airport only to see that the flight you rushed out of home to board has been canceled or postponed, this isn’t a new thing to regular travelers as it has happened to me severally. In 1978 Richard, a 28 year old young man who was travelling from Porto-Rico to British Virgin Island got his flight canceled which left him stranded. Because Branson wanted to reach the Virgin Island, he decided to charter a plane but instead of going alone, he decided to get passengers into the plane. After which the plane took off to the British Virgin Island. When the plane landed, someone told Branson “Sharpen up your service a bit Richard, and you could be in the airline business”. This made Branson happy and he immediately went to share it with his team at Virgin studios and immediately called Boeing if they had a used 747 for business.
As at the time before Virgin came onboard, travelling by air was seen as one of the most frustrating means of transportation as airlines were giving poor services, sub-standard food, no entertainment, and always canceling flights on customers. Branson felt that fun should work hand in hand with business, especially in the airline business but business doesn’t always go as planned and the airline industry is even worse as buying a plane was expensive and if the business failed, then he would be forced to sell for a cheaper price since not everyone wants to buy a plane. So instead of buying his first plane from boing, he leased his plane for 12 months reducing risks that could engulf the business due to the price of buying a plane.
On June 22nd, 1984, The “Maiden Voyager” took to the sky but unlike the way other planes did, Sir Branson wanted a fun plane and did made it a fun plane. The major market shaker was the British which had over 300 planes while Virgin had only one plane. Having such number of fleets come with a few pride making the CEO of British Airways dismiss the small business saying Richard is too old to Rock ’n Roll and too young to fly.
Gradually Branson began to grow and soon took over longer journeys like from Heathrow in London to North America and other countries. This was British Airway’s most profitable airport but Branson broke the monopoly. But you know, you cannot take over a market without a fight.
The War Ground
Brithish airway CEO called on people in his team to do everything possible to bring down Virgin Atlantic including employing a few staffs to go through Virgin’s call record, and call customers again acting like a Virgin staff while telling them that the flight had been canceled and giving them an opportunity to fly with British Airways as an alternative. The company also hired private spy to check up Branson personal life while creating scandals with it. Soon proofs came to Branson that British Airways was behind all this but how would Branson fight?
Branson could only win this with a lawsuit but the company was losing money so what could be done to safe Virgin airways from bankruptcy. At this point, Richard Branson sold Virgin Records to EMI for about a billion dollars which was the major weapon Branson needed to beat British Airways of which Virgin defeated British airway in court.
Conclusion
Richard Branson has always talked about how much the company cherishes customers smile, comfortable journey and top notch service in their planes. Security was the major reason while Virgin had to become a prey to British airways as Virgin’s booking system was easy to infiltrate and that’s why the British Airways could call virgin customers. Decision making can be a very important aspect in business. If Branson had gone to court with no money, he might have won but could have lost both companies so he had to sell one for the other.