Making our mark in Mumbai
- By Richard Branson -
- Oct 26, 2012
Exciting day in Mumbai, celebrating Virgin Atlantic’s new route to Mumbai. As we always do when launching a new business, product or route, we had a lot of fun introducing it to the world – as you can see from the photos!
Part of my business philosophy has always been to put myself out there, in order to ensure we catch the eye over our competitors. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, if you need to dress up, be flamboyant and make fun of yourself to get a new product on the map, do it. If you end up surrounded by beautiful women and brilliant musicians too - so be it!
Today was no exception. Hopefully everybody in India, the UK and around the world will know that Virgin Atlantic is now flying to Mumbai as well as Delhi. We’ve got fantastic, brand new planes that are much more fuel efficient than our previous planes. We feel we should be able to make a great success of it, considering how our Delhi route has done for the past 11 years.
Also spent time in India meeting a great group of entrepreneurs we have over here, including some from Virgin Media Pioneers. They have all got fantastic new ideas. One in particular, Rob Nunn, stood out after telling an embarrassing story. He explained how when we first met at Goodwood in 2008, he chased yours truly out of a helicopter, proclaiming his undying love!
He is only 18 but has incredible ideas for supporting people trying to get into piloting. His business, Your Aviation Future, could make a real difference in increasing focus on vocational training, something that is often overlooked. He is campaigning to get VAT removed from pilot training costs - as the UK is the only country to add the levy, and we wholeheartedly support him.
It has been eye-opening listening to all of the entrepreneurs’ ideas and meeting all of the Atlantic team here too - their enthusiasm is infectious. Tonight we will be having a party for our staff and guests here to kickstart the route. Then we are off to Egypt. Looking forward to it!
By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group
