“If a new runway is built at Heathrow, I’m absolutely certain that by the time it’s built there will be planes which will be more energy efficient than the current planes, and that it will bring many routes … that Virgin Atlantic would want to fly to.”

Branson was speaking at a press conference to mark the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s new route to Atlanta and the delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Appearing alongside him was the airline’s chief executive Craig Kreeger, who outlined the plans for the new jet.

“We’ll start with Boston and stay on the east coast [of the US] in the early days as we build up the number of pilots who have done many landings on that airplane. So we’ll be flying to places that are shorter haul for Virgin Atlantic for the first several months,” he said.

Kreeger said the new focus on the US – with routes cut to places like Mumbai and Tokyo – was not a deliberate strategy.

“We didn’t have a goal to move from east to west or try to become more US-centric. It’s simply that we let the performance take us where our customers wanted to go, and as we looked at the routes that were performing well and those that were performing less well it suggested there were opportunities to take advantage of a partner [Delta] at this end.”