V-Flyer

I have heard today that Richard Branson is Resigning as Chairman of Virgin Atlantic. He will be president now.

Is this good or bad for VS? What are the implications of this?

President / Chairman = pretty much wordplay. He's not been "hands on" for ages already

I doubt his day-to-day involvement will change much (if at all).


For reference, story (and interesting comments on tax!) here

Great.
so now VA with the reigns loosened, will be run by an accountant.
Fantastic [:#]

Great.
so now VA with the reigns loosened, will be run by an accountant.
Fantastic

I think has been for a long time.

Yes, but I think now that the controls over the Accountants penny pinching will become worse.

Engineer wants to put in new IFE to make customers experiance better
Accountant says "no, Nova has been paid for, we don't want to spend any money at all if we can help it"

Head of company says "I understand accountants point of view and will go that way"

No "peoples Champion" Branson involved, service goes down even quicker for bottom line figures

I apologise in advance for any incoherency and rambling resulting from my anger at the idiocy of it all.

This is portrayed as a positive thing but does VS not realise that his "loosening of the reigns" is what is wrong with the fcuking airline these days. Everything VS stands (read: stood) for such as being quirky, bold and different is embodied within SRB. It needs to go the other way with him taking an active role in the running of the airline to return to the golden days.

Clearly he needs to hand over someday but he could have at least left behind someone in exec management who could carry on the orignial VS, not this "just another airline" that is becoming increasingly apparent these days within the A-Z of accountants which must now reside in VS' board-room.

45.

Seen Alan's comments ring true lots of times (A346), sadly all the airlines are run by accountants.

It could just have gotten worse...[}:)]

Originally posted by VS045
I apologise in advance for any incoherency and rambling resulting from my anger at the idiocy of it all.

This is portrayed as a positive thing but does VS not realise that his "loosening of the reigns" is what is wrong with the fcuking airline these days. Everything VS stands (read: stood) for such as being quirky, bold and different is embodied within SRB. It needs to go the other way with him taking an active role in the running of the airline to return to the golden days.

Clearly he needs to hand over someday but he could have at least left behind someone in exec management who could carry on the orignial VS, not this "just another airline" that is becoming increasingly apparent these days within the A-Z of accountants which must now reside in VS' board-room.

45.

I agree completely with this. SRB's lack of involvement will only mean that the airline will become even worse than it already is unless he can put someone who shares his enthusiasm and creativity in control.

On a slightly off-topic note...

Stelios take note!

I believe that his family still have a controlling stake within easyJet, which is just as well considering that Ryanair have now decided to introduce a charge of £2 just to check-in at a desk! I reckon that as long as Stelios is still around at easyJet, they won't look towards maximising their profits in the same way as Ryanair does.