Branson says Virgin Atlantic will survive

Sir Richard Branson says Virgin Atlantic will survive the crisis surrounding the aviation industry.

He says the airline will not need additional funding, and can weather the storm on its own.

Speculation has been mounting that Singapore Airlines, which has a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic, will have to bail out the group.

Speaking in Singapore at the launch of Virgin Mobile Asia, Sir Richard said: "We have got the necessary resources at Virgin Atlantic, so we weren't discussing those kind of issues."

He said: "We will keep the 51% in Virgin Atlantic and not dilute our shareholding, no matter what happens. We'll just have to sell more mobile phones."

Since the US terror attacks on September 11, the airline industry has slumped as passenger numbers fall and security issues increase.

Immediately after the terror attacks, Virgin Atlantic cut 1,200 jobs.

Sir Richard said business class passenger numbers had fallen by 30%, while economy traffic was down by 15%.

Yesterday, Virgin Express - the Belgian-based airline part-owned by Virgin - said it was considering buying parts of ailing national airline Sabena.

Talks between Virgin Express, which is 50.5% owned by the Belgian government, and Sabena's management and administrators are at an early stage.