Virgin looks at US CEO

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group said on Thursday it is set to choose a chief executive for its planned US low-fares unit from a shortlist of three US airline executives.
The announcement is imminent as the group’s board agreed in principle at a meeting in London on Wednesday to go ahead with the airline, a spokesman said.
“We reckon that the chief executive announcement will be about the 23rd of February, when an individual is prepared to let his name go into the frame,” he said.
He said three US airline executives had been shortlisted, including current chief executives.
“For our side of the equation we have signed up the finance now,” he said, regarding progress in plans to launch a US low-fares unit to start operations in the first quarter of 2005.
The company is hunting for US investors to buy 51 percent of the new airline and for an airport to use as its headquarters.
Under US laws, Virgin Group would be allowed to own up to 49 percent of the venture, which would compete with discount carriers Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Branson has said other investors would fund most of the start-up costs of around USD$300 million.
The spokesman said Virgin was speaking to three manufacturers about planes, a decision Branson said in December was imminent.
Boeing supplies planes for the group’s low-fare operators Virgin Express in Belgium and Virgin Blue in Australia. The group’s flagship long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic flies both Boeing and Airbus planes.
Other possible suppliers are Bombardier of Canada and Brazil’s Embraer, which dominate sales of passenger jets with fewer than 100 seats.