Sir Richard Branson, founder of airline conglomerate the Virgin Group, blasted The Boeing Co. at a celebration for a new Virgin airline, held Friday morning on Boeing's own turf.

Branson said the new airline, V Australia, would have initiated service around Christmas, rather than later this month, if not for the Machinists strike last year, which deprived it of the necessary planes.

"The strike hurt hundreds of thousands of our passengers," Branson told reporters. "It messed up Virgin Atlantic, it messed up Virgin Blue in Australia, it ruined people's Christmas holidays. It was absolutely and utterly ghastly."

He continued, "If union leaders and management can't get their act together to avoid strikes, we're not going to come back here again. We're already thinking, 'Would we ever risk putting another order with Boeing?' It's that serious."

Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said later Friday in an e-mail, "We never want to disappoint our customers to such an extent. We are committed to doing everything we can in the future to satisfy our customers in the manner they deserve."

Branson was in town to take delivery of V Australia's first plane, a 777-300ER that initially will link the West Coast and Australia.