Virgin connections

In direct competition with British Airways’ nine daily return flights, Virgin Atlantic will introduce a three times per day Heathrow – Manchester service next March, its first domestic routing.  It has also applied for some of the slots BA has been forced to give up following the takeover of bmi.  Should Virgin be successful it could quickly build up a strong regional presence including Aberdeen and Edinburgh.  A wet leased Airbus 319 will be used but no more details are yet available.

The Heathrow – Manchester route was worth 766k passengers last year (CAA), a drop of 4%.  This could be due to a lessening of bmi efforts, or the success of the deposed Virgin Trains enterprise.  About 65% of passengers are connecting. 

Virgin has also confirmed a code-share relationship with the Russian airline Transaero Airlines which is established on the Heathrow – Moscow (Domodedovo) route with a twice daily 767 operation.  How this affects Virgin’s efforts to secure its own service rights remains to be seen.  The Crawley-based airline has also established a code-share with US Airways on the American carrier’s Heathrow – Philadelphia service.  With both carriers Virgin expects to pick up connecting traffic for its various routes. www.virgin-atlantic.com

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