Richard Branson says Virgin Atlantic will go under without government support

I’m not writing this to get at Branson but because I am genuinely puzzled. I read that:

“The Virgin Group boss said the airline needs taxpayer support in the form of a commercial loan. It has been reported that the carrier is asking for up to £500 million of public money.”

Why doesn’t Branson go to a commercial bank for a commercial loan? Could it be because a commercial bank wouldn’t make such a loan to a company that was a bad prospect? That they wouldn’t make a loan that doesn’t make commercial sense? And where does ‘the taxpayer’ get the money to loan Branson? Could it be from a commercial bank? I may be wrong but doesn’t that mean that we would be borrowing from the bank to make a commercially unsound loan that the bank won’t make? And we have to pay the bank back when things go belly up? So cuts in public services then and maybe sell off public assets to pay back the debts. Maybe sell public services to Richard Branson and his ilk?

No, I must be wrong. That makes no sense. Someone please enllighten me