Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson Bets on Hawaii
Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson on Virgin America’s service to Hawaii, the airline industry and the U.S. economy.
Virgin America is adding Hawaii to its routes. The carrier announced it will fly to Honolulu and Maui from San Francisco.
During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said: “there’s a lot of Virgin America flyers who like to redeem their air miles and the place they love to redeem the most I think is Honolulu or Maui and Virgin America is going great, [I’m] very proud of the airline and I suspect we should have done this years ago.”
Branson also weighed in on the U.S. economy.
“I think America is doing well. You’ve got low fuel prices right now which I think will start to benefit people throughout the country more and more and I don’t think that there’s going to be a major hiccup. America is in a strong position and I think can go stronger from here.”
Despite buying fuel at higher prices, Branson said American consumers can expect a price cut if oil prices continue to stay low.
“A lot of airlines, including ourselves had hedged quite a lot when prices were high and therefore we are still buying fuel at higher prices than we’d like -- but if fuel prices stay at these sort of levels for a couple of years, I think you [are] definitely going to get a lot of price competition… The more competition on individual routes, the more I think you’ll see great bargains on fares throughout America.”