Sir Richard Branson has warned that Virgin Atlantic will collapse unless it receives more than £500million in emergency Government support.
The Virgin Group boss said the airline needs taxpayer help in the form of a commercial loan in order to survive the coronavirus crisis.
It has been reported that the carrier is asking for up to £500million of public money, as thousands of flights remain cancelled amid airport closures and the escalating global pandemic.
In an open letter to Virgin Group employees, Sir Richard wrote: "We will do everything we can to keep the airline going - but we will need Government support to achieve that in the face of the severe uncertainty surrounding travel today and not knowing how long the planes will be grounded for.
"This would be in the form of a commercial loan - it wouldn't be free money and the airline would pay it back (as easyJet will do for the £600 million loan the Government recently gave them).
"The reality of this unprecedented crisis is that many airlines around the world need government support and many have already received it.
"Without it there won't be any competition left and hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost, along with critical connectivity and huge economic value."
Airlines around the world have grounded the vast majority of their aircraft due to the collapse in demand and travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
British Airways has placed 36,000 workers on furlough, while Virgin told staff to take eight weeks of unpaid leave to "drastically reduce costs".
The airline, which is 51% owned by Richard Branson's group and 49% owned by US airline Delta, said other cost cutting measures will include offering all staff a "one-time voluntary severance package".
In a letter to staff last month, Branson, 69, addressed comments that a company of Virgin's scale should be able to pay its staff.
He said: "I have seen lots of comments about my net worth" but insisted the figures were calculated on the value of Virgin businesses before the coronavirus pandemic, rather than "cash in a bank account ready to withdraw".
Branson later agreed to pump £215million into his Virgin empire - which employs 70,000 workers worldwide.
Earlier this month, the company called on the Government to offer the UK's airline industry emergency credit facilities worth up to £7.5billion.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he will not create a specific support package for the sector but the Government is prepared to negotiate with individual firms once they have "exhausted other options", such as raising cash from existing investors.
It came just weeks after easyJet confirmed that it had secured a £600million loan from the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), issued by HM Treasury and the Bank of England, after the airline’s founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, claimed it would run out of cash by the end of 2020.
The airline said it would also borrow another £407million from commercial creditors to ensure its liquidity, with its fleet grounded until at least May due to the pandemic.
In a statement issued before confirmation of easyJet’s government loan, Haji-Ioannou had claimed that even remaining solvent until August – based on financial analysis that assumed flying would be quickly embraced again by holidaymakers this summer – could prove "wildly optimistic".
When international travel eventually restarts, he said, the airline would "feel more like a startup trying to find a few profitable routes for a few aircraft".
