There's Always a Way
From the beginning of Virgin Atlantic, the companies planes were maintained by British Caledonian. Then when British Airways bought the company, they gave their word that all existing contracts would be honored.
But in September of 1988, when Virgin started expanding and got their third and fourth planes from Boeing, British Airways then upped the price of maintenance exponentially. The original cost for labor at that time was 16 pounds an hour, but they put it up to a huge 61 pounds per hour.
The reason BA did it was because they thought that Virgin had no other recourse or action they could take. As BA has found out more than once: they were wrong!
What Virgin and Branson did was to start flying the planes to Ireland for maintenance by Aer Lingus. While it was inconvenient and expensive, it put BA on notice that they weren't going to control Virgin Airlines future.
Herb Kelleher went through this with the reservations systems that Southwest Airlines (LUV) was going to be charged to use, and instead decided to build their own which eventually gave them a huge competitive advantage.
We need to know that there is always a way out of a dilemna, and for the most part it's having the will and the willingness to search for alternative routes that can be taken that aren't obvious until the circumstances arise. Nothing can hold back someone that has the will and willingness to adapt to whatever is thrown their way.
Other Branson Sources:
Richard Branson conquered the world. Now he wants to fly you to space.
OPEN LETTER TO GEOFF DIXON FROM RICHARD BRANSON
Richard Branson's: Losing My Virginity
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