VIRGIN Airways is preparing to give Ms Lisa Leeson free flights to the Far East so she can visit her husband Nick in the Singapore jail where the former Barings derivatives trader is serving six and a half years.
But the offer is no stunt by the publicity hungry airline and Mr Richard Branson, its chief executive. Ms Leeson would get the concessionary flights as one of the perks of working as a stewardess for Virgin. Any member of cabin crew with six months of employment by Virgin is entitled to several free flights a year.
The airline is currently hiring 400 staff to add new routes to the Far East and North America, and Ms Leeson is one of the applicants. The job is not yet in the bag, but Virgin's personnel officers found Ms Leeson delightful at the preliminary interview. "Hopefully she'll be on board soon," Mr Branson said yesterday.
Nick Leeson's account of his life and the collapse of Barings, the British merchant bank, was ghosted by journalist and former merchant banker Mr Edward Whitley. The same writer is now working with Mr Branson on the entrepreneur's autobiography.
