Virgin uses Aer Lingus for domestic flights
Virgin Atlantic is to use Aer Lingus planes and staff, branded as Virgin, to operate its flights between Heathrow and Scotland.
A deal was agreed between the two airlines after Virgin took over key Heathrow takeoff and landing slots from British Airways which had to relinquish them to meet competition concerns when it merged with bmi.
A spokesman for Virgin said: "Sir Richard Branson’s airline will provide a bespoke Virgin Atlantic product and service on all of its short haul flights and has signed a letter of intent with Aer Lingus as a wet lease partner to supply the crew and Airbus narrow body aircraft required, which will be fully Virgin branded.
"Virgin’s decision was taken after hard fought competition from two carriers with two excellent business cases being presented to the airline."
Virgin will operate nine daily services to Scotland, starting on March 31 2013, which will include six round-trips daily from London to Edinburgh and three from London to Aberdeen.
But the airline has only taken up nine of the 12 slots on offer, with the other three being returned to BA parent company International Airlines Group (IAG).
While welcoming the new services, Scotland’s deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she was still concerned about the absence of competition on the Glasgow-Heathrow route.
The planes will be branded with Virgin’s red livery, and passengers will be served food by crew in Virgin uniform, but the 174-seat Airbus 320s will be leased from Aer Lingus and operated by the Irish airline’s employees.
Virgin said its domestic services, which includes three daily round trips from Manchester to London, will create more than 150 new jobs in the UK.
Tickets for the domestic routes will go on sale December 19.
At the same time reports suggest Sir Richard Branson could give up control of Virgin Atlantic any day if talks over the future go well.
The Sunday Times reports that three way talks between Delta Air Lines, Singapore airlines and Virgin are getting close to a deal.
The American airline has already approached Singapore Airlnes to buy its 49% stake in Virgin with Air France-KLM to buy part of Branson’s 51% holding to comply with regulations.
Sources close to the talks told the Sunday Times that a possible deal would be concluded early this week but cautioned it could still fall apart. "It is a three-way situation between Delta, Singapore and Virgin, so it is difficult to confidently to predict the outcome," one insider said.
Branson set up Virgin Atlantic in 1984.
Diane
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