Singapore Airlines is understood to be in talks with the second-largest US carrier, Delta Airlines, to sell their 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic.

In a short statement, Singapore Air did not disclose the interested party, but according to reports from news agencies Bloomberg and Reuters, unnamed sources reveal it to be Delta Airlines.

For over two years, Delta has been seeking to purchase a share into Virgin, as it wants to increase its presence at London’s Heathrow airport, where landing spaces are difficult to acquire. Virgin is the second-biggest airline, only after British Airways, at the UK’s busiest hub.

Virgin Atlantic Sale
A Virgin partnership would be profitable for Delta in gaining access to the transatlantic business passengers market between London and the US. In their statement, Singapore Air said the talks may or may not result in a transaction.

The east-Asian carrier purchased its 49% share in Virgin in the millennium year for around £551 million ($884 million). After injecting additional capital into Virgin, the company now amounts its total investment to be £600.25 million. In October, they bought a 10% share in the Australian Virgin carrier for £71 million ($108.5 million), indicating their intention to focus on the Far East.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson currently holds the 51% controlling stake in Virgin, but the latest talks have prompted speculation that he may relinquish this. Branson has been deliberating Virgin’s future for some time, hiring Deutsche Bank in 2010 to look into potential investors.

“We realised for the long-term stability of Virgin Atlantic we needed to look at an alliance partner, and whether it is purely an alliance or more than an alliance we're completely undecided,” said Branson last year, adding that he would prefer to maintain control of the airline. In February of that year, a deal was nearly signed with Air France-KLM.

Virgin Atlantic said on the current negotiations that they are regularly in talks with different airlines on a number of topics, and declined to comment on details of the discussions. Currently, Virgin has 44 planes, flying 5.3 million passengers last year, and has six further orders for Airbus A380 jets.
 

منبع: مجله Aviation News