HOWZAT

Don’t bet on it, though. “There’s no point in trying to out-Branson Branson,” sighs Ridgway. As in other parts of the Virgin empire, it’s hard to get between the entrepreneur and his press.

Ridgway has a job on his hands piloting Virgin Atlantic’s future. Privately owned, medium-sized, determinedly long-haul, fighting a David and Goliath battle against its national carrier — there is no equivalent in any other European country.

It was in profit last year on about $4.5 billion (£2.9 billion) of sales, but could slump into the red in 2009. It has already postponed orders for new planes. Last week it launched a 40%-off sale on Upper Class tickets. Without losing valuable slots at Heathrow or breaking the promise of daily services to destinations, it’s hard to see where Virgin Atlantic can cut costs.

“We’ve done a lot already,” counters Ridgway, “cutting capacity and frequency, and we are a pretty efficient organisation, with none of the legacy costs of the old flagcarriers. Our routes are profitable, we’ve got cash in the bank, no debts, our aircraft are leased — it’s a great place to be.”

But if bookings in the key January-February period don’t hold up? “I think we will stay profitable unless we see a much sharper downturn. We held our traffic until November, now it’s falling behind, but it’s not huge and we’re watching it carefully.”

Will he lay off some of his 9,000 staff? Yes, if he has to, but it will be “quick and humane”. Some 20% of the staff went after the September 11 terror attacks, 80% voluntarily. He will look to repeat that.

There’s a consistency to Ridgway’s approach that others like. Nats (National Air Traffic Service) chief executive Paul Barron, who deals with all the airline bosses, describes Ridgway as different to the norm: a “subtle leader”, softer in style, steely underneath but clever at relationships.

“He rang me on New Year’s Eve, my first year, just to say ‘thanks’ for a good year,” remembers Barron. “I thought ‘bloody hell, that’s impressive’.”

Ridgway will need all those powers to pull off the BMI deal. Industry gossip insists that Branson has long hoped to merge Virgin Atlantic with BMI, giving it short-haul feed for its long-haul flights, and a lot more Heathrow slots. Virgin Atlantic’s 49% shareholder Singapore Airlines is just one interested onlooker.

Whether Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines would become co-shareholders in a merged entity, or sell between themselves, is all part of the speculation. Ridgway is not revealing much. “Lufthansa is looking at options for BMI, one of which is an alliance with Virgin. But they have a lot on their plates; it’s very early days.”

Then there’s Gatwick. Before Christmas Virgin Atlantic popped up as a possible buyer of the airport, which is being sold by BAA. Now it’s cooling the rumours, saying it is “talking to consortia” but doesn’t envisage making a big investment.

Why the interest? Because Virgin Atlantic, with its emphasis on streaming business passengers into trendy luxury lounges, cares more than most about airports. Its latest innovation is a drive-up check-in and dedicated security tunnel at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, which has already won plaudits. “In a world where going through airports has become a nightmare, that has been a wow factor,” says Ridgway. “What we have done in T3, effectively building a terminal within a terminal, shows what can be done.”