8th Sep 2014 06:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd is set to close its UK domestic airline only 18 months it was launched with a pledge to take on British Airways and to cut fares, the Sunday Times reported over the weekend.
The closure of Little Red, started in March last year, will be a defeat for Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic's founder, who said when the service was launched it would "stop BA dominating routes and driving higher prices", the paper said.
Little Red started offering flights from London to three cities - Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen - with the aim to then feed passengers into Virgin's long-haul network. It was created in response to the takeover of domestic carrier British Midlands Regional Ltd, known at BMI, by International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, the owner of BA.
Little Red took over take-off and landing slots which BA had been forced to give up by the European Commission as a result of the BMI takeover. The BMI deal meant BA upped its share of all runway slots at Heathrow to 50% from around 40% previously. The closure of Little Red is likely to mean it will have to relinquish the slots it took over in that deal, the Sunday Times said.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Companies/article1455799.ece
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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