Virgin Australia launches US legal action to protect aircraft from being seized

Collapsed airline Virgin Australia has launched legal action in the US to protect itself from creditors there who are owed billions of dollars. The move, made Wednesday ahead of a meeting of creditors in Australia on Thursday, is also designed to protect from seizure four of Virgin’s planes that are currently undergoing maintenance at an airport in Nashville, Tennessee. It comes as the Western Australian mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest reportedly put together a consortium to bid for the airline, which collapsed into administration last Monday. Virgin, which has been all but grounded by the crisis, owes $6.8b to about 12,000 creditors. The administrators, partners at Deloitte, told creditors at Thursday's meeting that they had received bids from a number of “high quality” parties interested in buying the airline, but would not name any of them. They said they would ask a court to delay a second meeting of creditors by three months. This would push the date of the meeting into late August, by which time the administrators hope to have sold the airline.<br/>