Branson puts £200m into Virgin

SIR Richard Branson will stump up £200m as part of a £1bn plan to prop up Virgin Atlantic without taxpayers’ money.

He will use money raised from selling a £396m stake in space tourism business Virgin Galactic in May.

US hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management

will pump in £200m secured against Virgin’s assets – including its 27 pairs of Heathrow landing slots – in a deal which may be announced tomorrow.

A further £400m will come from the deferral of fees. The deal comes as chief executive Shai Weiss draws up a four-year plan for the company, whichwill start flights to the Caribbean and Israel soon.

Virgin is cutting 3,150 jobs and has placed 80pc of its staff on furlough and ceased flights from Gatwick. The airline said the deal was a ‘comprehensive, solvent re-capitalisation’.