Virgin Atlantic

[J654UHN]

Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic have announced they are going to bid for the slots at Heathrow that BA have had to give up due to their take over of BMI.
Virgins Plan is to Launch A Short Haul Service to Manchester.
Good on Branson I say. About time somone give BA a run for their money as they dominate the shuttle services

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
It'd be interesting to see what Virgin would do with a short haul (domestic at that) link. To be honest, with BMI petering out following the takeover, I can only view it as healthy competition; with just BA operating these links, they can price it at whatever they want!

At the same time though, I hope it just remains a domestic affair because if you look at the last time Virgin tried European flights with Virgin Sun, it wasn't a great success and that was at a time when the holiday market was booming!

[126th street]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
I'd imagine it would function more as a 'feeder' route from Manchester to Heathrow for their long-haul flight than anything else.

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
Yes, in all honesty that probably is the intention but when you look at that link anyway, that's largely what the existing links have always been - links for long haul flights. There's a lot of codesharing with airlines such as AA on the existing BA flights for example.

Like I said, I think fare competition will be good down that route.

[126th street]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
For a long time Virgin had a code share arrangement with BMI for the purposes of ferrying people to Heathrow. I can't see BMI's new owners BA wishing to continue that arrangement somehow, so they've obviously had their hand forced and have had to start something themselves.

[SNL 824]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
Sky is reporting that US airline Delta have bought 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic.

More on this. Delta have bought out Singapore Airlines share. This will give Delta/Virgin 30 Plus daily transatlantics. Meanwhile Willy Walsh is predicting the end of the Virgin brand.

Delta are one to watch - having taken over North West Airlines a few years ago I believe they are now the largest US airline and already have a presence at LHR.

!0 years ago they only had a few flights from LGW to Atlanta and a couple of subsidiary hubs like Cincinnati and Miami.

[Metroline1511]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic are introducing flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen next year as well. I wonder why they are leaving out Glasgow, unless it is because BMI had already pulled out of Glasgow prior to the sell-out to IAG.

[507 mad]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
when the new routes were broadcasted to the public virgin were running them by themselves but now aer lingus are taking over them.

[wirralbus]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
Is Aer Lingus operating the services on behalf of Virgin Atlantic due to the fact that Virgin Atlantic are not yet trained on the aircraft that will operate the routes.

[YSV-205]

RE: Virgin Atlantic
Does anyone remember G-VKID, G-VKIS, G-VMED & G-VTAN from back in 1999-2000. They were Virgin A320's (granted it was Virgin Sun) but why get Aer Lingus involved? There must be some pilots still flying for Virgin Atlantic that flew for Virgin Sun. Will the planes be painted in Virgin colours on EI registrations? Maybe Ryanair need to watch out, Virgin Ireland could be the next LCC mmmmmm