Branson shoots the breeze

Branson's celebrity quotient certainly attracted press to the whole shindig; at the afterparty on the Thompson Hotel rooftop, he was mobbed by the camera crews who weren't able to nab soundbites from him in-flight.

But in a brief speech at the afterparty, Branson also related to the crowd a local example of how his airline industry endeavors don't have a perfect track record: Virgin's London-based airline, Virgin Atlantic, started flying to Toronto just less than a decade ago, only to pull service within months in the wake of airline industry woes following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Branson said on Tuesday that he hopes to reopen Virgin Atlantic service to Toronto within a year or two.