Investor: Virgin start-up at risk

Virgin America Inc., a start-up airline partly owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, may fold in six months without a U.S. government decision to let it fly, one of its investors said Wednesday.

“At some point it just becomes untenable,” said Robert Nisi, chief operating officer of Cyrus Capital Partners and a Virgin America director.

Virgin America is trying to increase pressure on the Transportation Department to reverse a Dec. 27 decision that the airline wasn’t owned or controlled by U.S. citizens, as required for domestic carriers.

It costs millions of dollars monthly to keep Virgin America operating, Nisi said.