Branson still keen on Russian operation

British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson says he is still keen on expanding Virgin Airlines into Russia.

Speaking in Moscow at the Russian Youth Innovations Convention, the British businessman said Virgin was holding up through the credit crisis, with falling fuel costs helping.  He added that the global financial crisis hasn’t diminished his enthusiasm for setting up in Russia.

“We're certainly still keen to explore the idea of Virgin flying inside Russia and from Russia overseas, and obviously we accept that we're going to need to have Russian partners because we wouldn't be able to control an airline in Russia.  It would have to be a Russian airline.  But we have a lot of expertise in setting up domestic airlines, global airlines, and I think Russia deserves a good airline, so we'd love to see Virgin here one day.”

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