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Branson predicts “spectacular” airline casualties

There will be “spectacular casualties” in the airline industry over the next 12 months, billionaire Richard Branson, the owner of Britain’s No. 2 long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic, was quoted as saying on Saturday.The U.S. airline industry — including Virgin America — has been battered by soaring fuel costs that are pinching even the healthiest airlines.

“The financial state of the world is just about the worst I’ve ever known it,” Branson told The Times newspaper in an interview. “It’s getting perilously close to being worse than the 1990s.

“You have the perfect storm — you’ve not only got the banking crisis and the housing crisis, you’ve got the soaring fuel prices as well. One of the big American carriers will almost definitely go.”

Branson confirmed Virgin was interested in buying British airline bmi, 50 percent plus one share owned by entrepreneur Sir Michael Bishop.

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