Virgin boss Richard Branson plays Father Christmas on TV - handing out free flights to New York for the whole audience. The billionaire, promoting his new Virgin America airline, told talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres that he wants to give something away because "I like being Father Christmas".
The whole L.A.-based audience then screamed with joy as Branson casually asked: "Would anybody like to go to New York?"
Some of his airline staff then walked into the audience handing out free L.A. to New York airline tickets to everyone.
Branson could not hide a cheeky grin as he explained why he started the new airline. "Well I've traveled a lot on American Airlines over the years and haven't particularly enjoyed the experience," he said, laughing. "So we thought we'd start an airline in America that would be the best. And it's going great."
Branson - soon sending civilians into space - also revealed that he has amazing plans for the future of travel. "The same technology that we're using to take people into space, the engineers then want to move into trying to get you from L.A. to Australia in half-an-hour in the air," he said. "And it should be possible in the next 10 to 20 years.
"Basically it would put you straight out of the earth's atmosphere - and then straight back down to earth."
Laughing, he added: "So the only problem will be the amount of time the airports take to put you onto the plane!"
Asked what the best thing about being a billionaire was, Branson admitted: "I've got lots to smile about, that's for sure."
He added: "But if you've got some wealth you can do good things with it, and challenge yourself and challenge the people around you - and have some fun at the same time.
"I try to do things which will make a difference. But also you only live once so you might as well do things which are fulfilling and enjoyable as well. So you go from one extreme to the other."
By Lee Brown, Feb 13 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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