Richard Branson, chairman and owner of the Virgin group estimates that in the event of the bird-flu virus mutating to facilitate ”human to human” transmission of the disease, 70% of airline carrying capacity could be grounded for up to a year. He said, “statistically, there is about a 6 percent chance that in any one year of the next 10 years this becomes a person-to-person problem, and we just have to hope it is not this year.”  The only up side to the epidemic would be a precipitous drop in fuel costs.

As a precautionary measure Virgin Airlines has purchased sufficient quantities of the Tamiflu, anti-viral drug to treat all of its airline employees.