Virgin Atlantic is in it for the short haul
VIRGIN ATLANTIC promised to shake-up UK air travel yesterday and land a blow against British Airways by launching its first domestic flights.
Sir Richard Branson’s airline said its first foray into short-haul travel would see three flights a day take-off between London Heathrow and Manchester from March next year.
Chief executive Steve Ridgway said the move would remove the monopoly held by BA on the route and offer more “choice and competition” to the 650,000 passengers who fly between the cities each year.
He added: “This will provide strong competition to omnipresent BA, make fares more competitive and give consumers a genuine choice of airline to fly to Heathrow and beyond.”
The passengers, he hoped, would consist of both leisure and business flyers either with London as their final destination or as a connection to fly to Virgin long-haul routes such as Boston, Cape Town and Hong Kong.
Ridgway said Virgin would “freshen and brighten” domestic air travel by making improvements to in-flight entertainment and food and drink.
Virgin has its own twists and nuances but we will reveal more later
“Virgin has its own twists and nuances but we will reveal more later,” he said. “
This will revitalise UK air travel and give BA a run for its money.”
Virgin will use some of its existing slots at Heathrow for the service and hopes to gain more slots if an appeal to the European Commission against BA’s owner IAG’s purchase of BMI earlier this year proves successful.
As a result of the deal IAG had to give up 12 slots at Heathrow travelling to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Moscow, Nice, Cairo and Riyadh, which Ridgway calls “woefully inadequate”.
Ridgway added: “We will apply for all these slots and it would mean our first domestic flights to Scotland but we feel it is wrong that Manchester slots were overlooked and hope to gain some of these.”
The move comes a week after Branson’s Virgin Rail lost the West Coast main line route to FirstGroup including a direct service between London and Manchester. Ridgway said it would have happened irrespective of the decision. “We are separate businesses,” he said. “It is coincidental.”