Virgin’s Little Red to cut back Manchester flights

VIRGIN Atlantic will cut one of four daily flights between Manchester and London on its Little Red service next year.

But the airline, which launched the service earlier this year, stressed the move reflected a loss of slots to another carrier rather than poor demand.

Last month The Independent newspaper said the airline was loss-making and flying planes that were only a third full – claims rebutted by Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson.

Virgin told TheBusinessDesk.com bookings are growing monthly but would not give figures ahead of the publication of financial results in the spring.

It has previously said it launched the service to feed its long-haul flights from Heathrow rather than compete with the likes of Ryanair and easyJet. Following the acquisition of BMI by BA’s parent IAG in 2012 Virgin was dependent on BA flying its customers to pick up long-haul flights from Heathrow.

In a statement a Virgin Atlantic spokesman said: “From the start of the Summer 2014 season Virgin Atlantic Little Red will operate three daily flights between Manchester and London Heathrow.

“For the first year of Little Red’s operation we were able to operate four daily return flights between Manchester and Heathrow using slots loaned from another carrier. We now have to return those slots to their owner and due to Heathrow operating at almost complete capacity, we have not been able to find other slots to serve a fourth daily service.

“We will continue to provide passengers with a strong alternative for flights between Manchester and Heathrow, with three flights timed to maximise connection opportunities onto our worldwide network. This will include an early morning departure from Manchester and evening return time from Heathrow for the convenience of the Manchester business traveller.”

Little Red also flies from Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Heathrow. These routes are unaffected because Virgin secured the slots through a European Commission ruling following the BMI deal. It said BA must give up 12 landing slots at Heathrow from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Moscow, Cairo, Riyadh and Nice.

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