Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic

by Martyn Gregory

Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic was valued at over GBP1.2 billion when he sold a 49% stake to Singapore Airlines in 1999. This was an extraordinary achievement for an airline that began life in 1984 with one plane. Virgin Atlantic became one of the world's top airlines only after surviving an incredible dirty tricks campaign by British Airways. Award Winning investigative jounalist Martyn Gregory exposed BA's secret war, and he reveals the full story in Dirty Tricks.

Genres: Nonfiction

536 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read /Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic/, by Martyn Gregory.

I was familiar with the story before, from Branson's autobiography among other sources.

It was good to learn some of the other details, including that Virgin, too, employed some dirty tricks against British Airways, and not just the other way around.

[Ian Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forensic account of how BA set out to destroy Virgin Atlantic. Enjoyable read but probably could have been told in 100 less pages.

[Barry Worth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!

[Derek Choi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn't very often that I read something cover to cover in 2 nights but that is exactly what I did with this book.

"Dirty Tricks" is an extended blow by blow account of the entire battle between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. You need to be into the aviation industry to fully enjoy this book but even if you aren't it has a bit of everything from corporate/political sabotage, to battles between PR companies, politics, private investigators, spy equipment, unauthorised computer access, lots of lawyers, court cases in multiple regions and a war between a brash youthful entrepreneur against an pompous traditional old guard.

I initially read about the Dirty Tricks campaign in Richard Branson's autobiography (which was given to me as a gift from the Virgin lounge in Sydney). The version in the autobiography was (understandably) compressed and from the perspective of Branson and Virgin Atlantic.

Overall a great read. However I do strongly suggest that you read this book first before Branson's Autobiography as it does give a lot of the twists away.

[Air Transport · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the airline business. The old guard fights back, unsuccessfully, against the newcomer.