It seems that Virgin Atlantic is preparing to build a short-haul network for feeder traffic after failing to buy BMI with the announcement today that it will commence flying between London Heathrow and Manchester (two of the hubs that Virgin Atlantic operate from).
The slots to operate London to Manchester will be from Virgin Atlantic’s current allocation of slots – a total of 3 pairs or 6 landing and take off slots which were not assigned from the “remedy slots”.
The slots are currently being used – and are leased to another airline. Virgin will have the slots returned to operate this service.
In addition to these, Virgin Atlantic is planning to apply for the 12 Heathrow slots that British Airways/IAG has to give up as part of the deal with the European Commission to buy British Midland International.
Steve Ridgway – Virgin Atlantic chief executive says:
“Flying between Heathrow and Manchester is just the start for Virgin Atlantic’s new short-haul operation.
We have the means to connect thousands of passengers to our long haul network as well as to destinations served by other carriers
Our new service will provide strong competition to omnipresent BA; keep fares low and give consumers a genuine choice of airline to fly to Heathrow and beyond.”
Virgin Atlantic’s domestic operation will be using Airbus A319, with tickets on sale for the Spring/Summer 2013 season.
The booked schedule is currently:
London Heathrow to Manchester Airport VS 3041 DEPART LHR 09:20 ARRIVE MAN 10:20 VS 3043 DEPART LHR 16:20 ARRIVE MAN 20:10 VS 3045 DEPART LHR 20:10 ARRIVE MAN 21:10 Manchester Airport to London Heathrow VS 3046 DEPART MAN 06:50 ARRIVE LHR 08:00 VS 3044 DEPART MAN 12:20 ARRIVE LHR 13:30 VS 3042 DEPART MAN 17:50 ARRIVE LHR 19:00 Operates Daily Booked Equipment: Airbus A319
Looking at the above information, it looks like the aircraft will be based at Manchester in the first instance, with a lot of downtime between flights.
Still, it’s a beginning. For Virgin Atlantic dipping its toes again into the UK Domestic market this could either work well as competition (especially since Richard Branson’s/Stagecoach’s Virgin West Coast Railway is coming to the end of the franchise period), or like BMI found… it could be a very heavy burden…
BD could not make this work with the advantage of both the VS & Star network connections in LHR, so not too optimistic for VS unless they can get a lot of new codeshares.
If I’m blunt… This has got 1 year – maybe 2 at the most.
Unless Virgin do a “saving face thing” and use it as a loss leader.
I’m not convinced that even if Virgin get ALL of the old BD slots, they will be able to make the network work.