Richard Branson's game plan for Virgin Atlantic....
....is to assemble a European-Transatlantic-US airline system, which will transport passengers from anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the US in Virgin aircraft. This is a breathtakingly bold plan which will give Virgin a unique position in the most attractive airline markets in the world.
This concept was clear to me from the moment that I realized that Jonathan Ornstein left Virgin Express, where he was CEO, to become CEO of Mesa Airlines early last year.
A little digging identified the smoking gun: Ornstein is general partner of Barlow Partners II, LP, a venture fund of Barlow Management Inc. Barlow engineered the ouster of Mesa's Chairman and founder, Larry Risley, after acquiring a 5.3 percent stake in Mesa - 1.5 million of Mesa Air's 28 million shares - in January, 1998, and placing Ornstein AND Jim Swigart, none other than Virgin Express's current CEO and ALSO a principal of Barlow Management, Inc., on Mesa's board. Ornstein became CEO of Mesa shortly thereafter.
This story gets more intriguing, as Ornstein had previously worked at Mesa, serving as executive vice president from September 1993 to June 1994.
And now, someone at Mesa is talking. This message was posted on Yahoo on January 21, 1999: >>I heard a rumor today from a Mesa employee that Mesa and Virgin (it was unclear whether it is Atlantic or Express) may merge. Take this rumor for what it is - just that (regardless of Mesa's long history of leaking top secret information).<<
So, we have two key players at Barlow Management (Ornstein and Swigart) each running a regional airline, one in the US (Mesa) and one in Europe (Virgin Express). Ornstein and Swigart both have strong ties to Virgin - both have worked or are working for Branson - who owns the #2 transatlantic carrier (Virgin Atlantic). Mesa is making acquisitions (CCAir, 2/1/99). Virgin Express is operating in a newly deregulated environment.
Expect some fireworks. |
