Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson has hit out at the Australian government after low-cost airline Virgin Australia went into administration this morning.

In an open letter, Branson, whose Virgin group owns 10 per cent of the airline, wrote:

Read more: Richard Branson warns Virgin Atlantic needs coronavirus loan to survive

“In most countries federal governments have stepped in, in this unprecedented crisis for aviation, to help their airlines.

“Sadly, this has not happened in Australia”.

The decision to appoint an administrator came after Canberra elected to reject a plea for a AU$1.4bn loan to keep the flier alive.

Despite commanding a hefty share of the Australian domestic market, Virgin Australia’s debt pile reached AU$5bn (£2.54bn) before the airline appointed Deloitte as its administrator.

The budget carrier has recorded losses for the last seven years even before the coronavirus shutdowns hammered the global aviation industry.

In response to Branson’s comments, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said:

“If we had not taken the actions that we have… then all we may have ended up doing is sending $1bn to foreign shareholders and that was never part of my plan,” he said.

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“My plan was always about seeing two viable airlines on the other side, two viable airlines that would be there not just one year from now, but five or 10 years from now.”

Instead, said Morrison, the firm’s overseas owners should come to the rescue. A conglomerate of firms including Singapore Airlines and Emirates Airlines own 90 per cent of Virgin Australia.

Yesterday Branson called on the UK government to bailout Virgin Atlantic, which he said would fail without state aid.

In another open letter, the billionaire founder of the Virgin group of companies pledged his private island in the Caribbean as security against a government loan to save the airline.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that government aid will only be made available to airlines as a “last resort” after all other funding avenues have been explored.

Last week the Financial Times reported that the Treasury asked for Virgin’s original bid for £500m in loans to be resubmitted after being unimpressed with the original bid.

Read more: Coronavirus: Virgin Australia to ground all but one domestic flight and seeks state aid

Today Hungarian low-cost flier Wizz Air announced it had been made eligible to receive funding under the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Finance Facility.

It follows Easyjet, which received £600m in loans from the scheme last week.