Creditors vote in favour of Virgin Atlantic’s Restructuring Plan with Solvent recapitalisation on track for early September

• 25 August 2020
• News
• Virgin Atlantic

A message from Lee Haslett, Vice President UK & European Sales, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. 

This week Virgin Atlantic took an important step towards the private-only solvent recapitalisation of the airline. 

As you are likely aware, on 14 July, Virgin Atlantic announced it would be going through a court backed process as part of a solvent recapitalisation of the airline and holiday business, with a Restructuring Plan that, once approved and implemented, will keep Virgin Atlantic flying. The Restructuring Plan is based on a five year business plan, and with the support of shareholders Virgin Group and Delta, new private investors and existing creditors, it paves the way for the airline to rebuild its balance sheet and return to profitability from 2022. The solvent recapitalisation will deliver a refinancing package worth c.£1.2bn over the next 18 months.

Today, Virgin Atlantic has reached a significant milestone in safeguarding its future, securing the overwhelming support from all four creditor classes, including 99% support from our trade creditors who voted in favour of the Plan. We are incredibly grateful to our creditors for their continued support and partnership as we move forwards with our Restructuring Plan.

The next step is an English High Court hearing on 2 September to sanction the Restructuring Plan. We remain confident that the plan represents the best possible outcome for Virgin Atlantic and all its creditors and believe that the court will exercise its power to sanction the Restructuring Plan, at a hearing scheduled on 2 September. A US Chapter 15 procedural hearing will follow on 3 September, ensuring Virgin Atlantic’s Restructuring Plan is recognised in the US, paving the way for the £1.2bn private only, solvent recapitalisation of the airline.

We are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support throughout this time and look forward to continuing to work with you as we emerge from this crisis. As global travel restrictions ease and demand gradually recovers, we are relaunching more passenger flights with Mumbai, Delhi and Tel Aviv the latest to be added. We are also working with partners including Heathrow Airport on novel testing schemes with the aim to reduce the 14 day quarantine currently imposed by the UK government. 

We are intent on keeping you up to date on the continued progress of our Restructuring Plan. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Thank you again for your continued support.

Lee Haslett

Vice President UK & European Sales, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd.