Branson made his fortune on records with the virgin label and mega stores. he is a very savvy marketeer and loans the virgin name to other enterprises . short of like a royalty deal. he is personally not even a board member of virgin Atlantic anymore.while he is still head of the virgin group, he personally does not invest on airlines, the virgin group and other venture capitalist do. then, like they did with virgin blue, they sell ( like neeleman did with JB which netted him over 100 mill)to the other principal investors.

I'm not saying he is not a great entrepreneur, but just that none of his airlines have ever come close to the 7,000 pilot mark and he personally does not run any of them. as a matter of fact the virgin group has less invested on virgin america than on any other airline they help start. furthermore none of his airlines has been as profitable as any of the other non airlines ventures of the group.